Turkey sacks 8,000 security personnel for alleged coup involvement

Turkey removed almost 8,000 security personnel from duty late on Thursday, according to state media, as the purge continued of those suspected of links to the 15 July failed coup.

A total of 7,669 police were removed along with 323 personnel in the gendarmerie, which looks after domestic security.

Turkey accuses US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen and his Hizmet (Service) movement of ordering and conducting the failed putsch that left 240 dead, excluding 24 coup-plotters.

Ankara also accuses Gulen of running a "parallel state" and his followers of infiltrating state institutions.

Gulen has strongly denied all accusations.

Turkey embarked on an all-out purge of state bodies in the wake of the coup to rid the country of what Erdogan calls the "virus" of Gulen's influence.

The latest purge was not limited to the security forces. Almost 520 people were also removed from the religious affairs directorate, according to the official gazette.

On Thursday, 543 prosecutors and judges had been dismissed as part of the investigation into those linked to the movement, bringing the total removed from the judiciary to 3,390, NTV channel reported.

The gazette also decreed that any judge or prosecutor who voluntarily retired could apply to return within the next two months.

Another 820 military personnel - not including generals and admirals - were dismissed, the defence ministry said earlier on Thursday, Turkish media said, with 648 of those under arrest.

A total of 4,451 military personnel have been dismissed since July, including 151 generals and admirals.

Since the coup attempt, tens of thousands within the judiciary, military, education system and police force have been removed, detained or arrested after being accused of having links to the movement or the coup itself.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said last month that 40,000 people had been detained, with more than 20,000 remanded in custody.

Almost 80,000 civil servants have been suspended, he said, while about 5,000 have been dismissed.

In July, Turkey widened its massive post-coup purge to the state education sector.

In the latest action by authorities, Turkey's education ministry said more than 15,000 state education employees had been suspended.