Turkey dismissed more than 40,000 civil servants

Lists of names and positions published Thursday show widescale purge since failed July 15 coup, including 28,000 educators

By AP 2 September 2016, 3:12 pm

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Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan addresses a gathering of judges and lawyers at his palace in Ankara, Turkey, Thursday, Sept. 1, 2016. (Yasin Bulbul, Presidential Press Service, Pool via AP)

ISTANBUL — The Turkish government’s Official Gazette has announced that nearly 43,000 people have been expelled from their jobs in public institutions for alleged ties to terror organizations endangering national security.

Lists of names and positions published Thursday show the widescale purge Turkey has undertaken since the failed coup of July 15. The government blames the US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen for the plot that killed at least 270 people, and labels the network a terror organization.

The dismissals are allowed through the state of emergency declared following the coup attempt. The highest number of dismissals is from the Ministry of National Education with 28,163 people.

Some 35,000 people have been detained for questioning and more than 17,000 of those have been formally arrested to face trial, including soldiers, police, judges and journalists.