ANKARA, Turkey (Reuters) – Turkey has removed more than 4,000 judges and prosecutors on suspicion of links to United States-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara blames for orchestrating last year’s failed coup, Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said on Friday (May 26).
In a speech in Ankara, Bozdag said the investigation has been completed and the judiciary had been cleared of supporters of Gulen.
More than 100,000 people in the police, judiciary, civil service and private sector have been sacked or suspended from their jobs due to alleged links to the coup, something that has unnerved Turkey’s Western allies and rights groups.