Turkey to shut military academies

International Desk: Turkey will shut its military academies and put the armed forces under the command of the defence minister, Fikri Isik, president Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday in a move designed to bring the military under tighter government control after a failed coup.

 

Isik told broadcaster NTV the shake-up in the military was not yet over, adding that military academies would now be a target of “cleansing”.

 

The changes, some of which Erdogan said would likely be announced in the government’s official gazette by Sunday, come after more than 1,700 military personnel were dishonourably discharged this week for their role in the abortive 15-16 July putsch.

 

Erdogan, who narrowly escaped capture and possible death on the night of the coup, said the military, Nato’s second-biggest, needed “fresh blood“. The dishonourable discharges included around 40% of Turkey’s admirals and generals.

 

Turkey accuses US-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen of orchestrating the coup, in which a faction of the military commandeered tanks, helicopters and fighter jets and attempted to topple the government. Erdogan has said 237 people were killed and more than 2,100 wounded.

 

Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in the US for years, denies the charge and has condemned the coup. So far, more than 60,000 people in the military, judiciary, civil service and schools have been either detained, removed or suspended over suspected links with Gulen.

 

Turkey’s western allies condemned the attempted putsch, but have been rattled by the scale of the resulting crackdown.

 

“Our armed forces will be much stronger with the latest decree we are preparing. Our force commanders will report to the defence minister,” Erdogan said in an interview on Saturday with A Haber, a private broadcaster.

 

“Military schools will be shut down ... We will establish a national defence university.“

 

He also said he wanted the national intelligence agency and the chief of general staff, the most senior military officer, to report directly to the presidency, moves that would require a constitutional change and therefore the backing of opposition parties.

 

Source: Agencies

 

risingbd/Dhaka/July 31, 2016/A K Azad