Turkey suspends 1,500 employees of the Finance Ministry
The employees were said to have connections to US-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gülen. The Turkish government said he's behind the coup attempt.
Meanwhile, Erdogan has now arrested
- 30 provincial governors
- 47 district governors
- 8777 Interior Ministry staff (incl. police)
- 2745 judges
- 3000+ soldiers
- 103 generals/admirals
What's been puzzling is how quickly the lists were made up of 'conspirators'. Within hours of the coup attempt, the arrests started.
The EU commissioner dealing with Turkey's membership bid, Johannes Hahn, said he believes the lists were made up ahead of time.
"It looks at least as if something has been prepared. The lists are available, which indicates it was prepared and to be used at a certain stage," Hahn said.
