Erdogan's revenge: Map shows shocking scale of Turkey tyrant's purge as 7,500 judges, soldiers and police behind coup are arrested
- A total of 7,543 military officials and judges detained over failed putsch
- A further 10,000 police, state governors and civil servants are suspended
- Recep Tayyim Erdogan says he will 'cleanse' his country of coup's 'cancer'
- A third of all military and navy generals and admirals have been held
- One hundred high-rank officers have been charged with ‘high-treason’
- See more news on President Erdogan's Turkey purge as 7,500 are arrested
President Erdogan has wreaked revenge on nearly 18,000 people across the country with more than 7,500 military personnel, police and judges arrested for plotting the coup that failed to topple him in midnight raids last Friday.
A further 10,000 police officers, judges, state governors and civil servants from the Interior and Finance Ministries were suspended in a series of shock announcements throughout the day.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is the Turkey’s first president to survive an armed challenge to power, was in Ankara today attending funerals of some of the 208 people who died during the attempted power grab.
Nationwide: One third of all the country’s military and navy’s generals and admirals have been detained and almost every major military unit across the country has lost a commander
Broken: Senior military officers across the country - including former air force commander General Akin Ozturk (front centre) - have begun appearing in court facing charges of establishing an armed terrorist group
Detained: Among the thousands rounded up across the country, troops and officials were detained in Marmaris, the southern Turkey resort where Erdogan was on holiday at the time of the coup
Retribution: One hundred high-rank officers have been charged with ‘high-treason’ and are currently testifying to prosecutors for what might become a trial for their lives
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Yesterday Erdogan made clear his intention to ‘cleanse’ the country of the ‘cancer’ that had plotted to overthrow him and today his will came into full effect.
Senior military officers from across the country have begun to appear in court facing charges of establishing an armed terrorist organization, attempting to abolish the constitutional order and ‘intentional killing’.
One third of all the country’s military and navy generals and admirals have been detained and almost every major military unit across the country has lost a commander.
One hundred high-rank officers have been charged with ‘high-treason’ and are currently testifying to prosecutors for what might become a trial for their lives.
The iconic Ataturk Cultural Centre in Istanbul’s Taksim Square is now draped with huge pictures of the President and a Turkish flag
Thousands of supporters came onto the streets and squares across the country as President Erdogan warned the danger of a second coup had not passed and urged people to remain in the streets all week
Amid a backdrop of pulsing music used in Erdogan's Presidential campaign in 2014 crowds shouted for the coup plotters to be publicly executed
Mr Erdogan’s loyal Prime Minister Binali Yildirim addressed reporters in Ankara after a cabinet meeting that discussed public demands to reinstate the death penalty.
'There are 208 people who have been unfortunately martyred in this coup attempt: 60 of them police officers, three of them soldiers and 145 civilians are our hero martyrs,' he said.
Adding that 7,543 people have been arrested over alleged ties to the failed putsch, he said that the numbers were liable to change.
'A hundred of them are police officers, 6,038 of them are soldiers of different ranks, 755 judges and prosecutors, and 650 civilians.'
Thousands of supporters waving red Turkish flags and chanting ‘Allahu Akbar’ came to the streets and squares across the country as President Erdogan warned the danger of a second coup had not passed and urged people to come out to the streets all week.
Amid a backdrop of pulsing music used in Erdogan's Presidential campaign in 2014 crowds shouted for the coup plotters to be publicly executed.
Captive: Eight soldiers - including a major - fled to Greece on a Blackhawk helicopter and claimed asylum but were quickly detained and appeared in court
Questions: The speed and depth of the purge has led to questions if the failed coup had merely provided President Erdogan with the excuse to ‘clean house’ of non-conforming sections of government
The iconic Ataturk Cultural Centre in Istanbul’s Taksim Square is now draped with two huge pictures of the President and a Turkish flag, and lies in stark contrast to the secular Gezi Park movement in 2013 when it was covered in colourful banners and standards.
The speed and depth of the purge has led to questions about if the failed coup had merely provided President Erdogan with the excuse to ‘clean house’ in the institutions he says has links to his former ally and now rival in self-imposed exile Fetullah Gulen.
"It looks at least as if something has been prepared,’ said Johannes Hahn the EU commissioner dealing with Turkey’s membership bid.
‘The lists are available, which indicates it was prepared and to be used at a certain stage,’ Reuters reported Hahn as saying.
Erdogan’s plea to the people was repeated by Turkey’s Defence Minister Fikri Isik outside of the President’s Istanbul home this morning.
‘As of today the coup was prevented, but we can’t say the threat is gone,” Isik said according to state news agency Anadolu Agency.
‘That is why dear Istanbulites we ask you to closely follow every statement of Mr. President, and stay at the squares until Mr. President says, ‘Ok, you can return home now’.’
Fears of a resurgence grew yesterday as clashes intensified at an airbase in Konya, southern Turkey, although officials have now said the situation is under control.
Holiday spot: Rebel troops who tried to target Erdogan while he holidayed in the southern resort of Marmaris were also brought to court in nearby Mugla
Surrender: Those loyal to Erdogan have spent little time rounded up the many rebel factions within government
Failure: Abandoned helmets, guns and jackets belonging to rebel Turkish soldiers were left discarded on the Bosphorous bridge in Istanbul - now more than 7,500 military officials and judges have been detained
Turkish media reported that mobs attacked Syrian refugees in the city, whose presence has become synonymous with President Erdogan’s rule.
In the east of the country more than 100 soldiers were arrested at the Diyarbakir air force base.
The city is at the centre of the violent unrest that has plagued Turkey’s southeast as Kurdish PKK militants fight the army, and also hosts tensions between the Islamist Kurdish Huda Par (Party of God), and the Kurdish PKK.
Several cities have been under military curfew in the last year with entire neighbourhoods flattened after the lockdown was lifted.
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