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Turkey Arrests 55 more Pilots in Post-coup Investigations

Turkey Arrests 55 more Pilots in Post-coup Investigations
folder_openTurkey access_time7 years ago
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Local Editor

Turkish prosecutors ordered the detention of 55 more air force pilots Wednesday, broadcaster NTV and other media reported, as part of an ongoing crackdown following a failed coup in July.

Turkey Arrests 55 more Pilots in Post-coup Investigations

Authorities previously detained more than 300 pilots, most of them at an air base in Konya, as part of the unprecedented crackdown in which more than 110,000 people - from soldiers and judges to teachers and journalists - have been detained or suspended, and 37,000 formally arrested.

The latest operation targeting supporters of US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara blames for orchestrating the putsch, was carried out in eight provinces but centered in Konya, NTV said.

Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in the United States since 1999, denied the charges and condemned the coup.

The extent of the purges worried rights groups and some of Turkey's Western allies, who fear that President Tayyip Erdogan is using the failed coup as a pretext to curtain dissent.

The government said the actions are justified by the gravity of the threat to the state from July 15, when rogue soldiers commandeered tanks and fighters jets, killing more than 240 people.

The government said it was working on projects to cover the shortage in air force pilots since the attempted coup, and will seek to draw back pilots from civil aviation.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team

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