Erdogan's military overhaul: Turkish president rings the changes at summit with his remaining generals as he prepares to make raft of promotions after firing 1,700 officers

 

Turkey's top brass and political leaders have sat down to discuss a major overhaul of the armed forces after a failed military coup that has shaken the nation of nearly 80 million people and alarmed its NATO allies.

In a symbolic sign of how civilian authorities are now firmly in charge, Thursday's Turkish Supreme Military Council was held at the office of Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim rather than General Staff headquarters.

And President Erdogan is chairing the meeting.

The meeting will last one day instead of the usual three and is set to address the failed coup attempt and dismissals, plus a new military structure and possible promotions.

Hours before the Supreme Military Council began its annual meeting, the armed forces dishonourably discharged nearly 1,700 personnel for their alleged role in the July 15-16 putsch in which a faction of the armed forces tried to topple President Tayyip Erdogan.

Yildirim also accompanied senior military officers to pay respects at Ataturk's mausoleum in Ankara ahead of the meeting.

'We will surely eliminate all terror organisations that target our state, our nation and the indivisible unity of our country,' Yildirim said in televised remarks at the mausoleum.

Changes since the coup include bringing the gendarmerie, which is responsible for security in rural areas, and the coast guard firmly under interior ministry control rather than under General Staff control.

CNN Turk has reported that more than 15,000 people, including around 10,000 soldiers have been detained so far over the coup, citing the interior minister. Of those, more than 8,000 were formally arrested pending trial, it said.

The government said on Wednesday it had ordered the closure of three news agencies, 16 television channels, 45 newspapers, 15 magazines and 29 publishers. This announcement followed the shutting of other media outlets and detention of journalists with suspected Gulenist ties.

Erdogan, who narrowly escaped capture and possible death on the night of the coup, told Reuters in an interview last week that the military, NATO'S second biggest, needed 'fresh blood'. The dishonourable discharges included around 40 percent of Turkey's admirals and generals.

Turkey accuses U.S.-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen of masterminding the coup and has suspended or placed under investigation tens of thousands of his suspected followers, including soldiers, judges and academics.

In the aftermath of the coup, media outlets, schools and universities have also been closed down.

As the crackdown widened, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Thursday that more than 300 personnel in his ministry had links to Gulen and that it had dismissed 88 employees.

Separately, Turkey's biggest petrochemicals company Petkim said its chief executive had resigned and the state-run news agency Anadolu said he had been detained in connection with the failed coup.

Citing intelligence reports, Turkey's justice minister said on Thursday that Gulen, once a powerful ally of Erdogan, could flee his residence in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. Gulen denies any involvement in the coup.

Western governments and human rights groups have condemned the coup, in which at least 246 people were killed and more than 2,000 injured, but have also expressed concern over the scale and depth of the purges, fearing that Erdogan may be using them to get rid of opponents and tighten his grip on power.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel became the latest Western leader on Thursday to urge restraint, while underlining Turkey's need to take action against the rebels.

'In a constitutional state - and this is what worries me and what I am following closely - the principle of proportionality must be ensured by all,' she told a news conference in Berlin.

Foreign Minister Cavusoglu told broadcaster CNN Turk that some prosecutors with links to Gulen had fled to Germany and he urged Berlin to extradite them. He also said he saw 'positive change' in the attitude of the United States towards Ankara's request to extradite the cleric to Turkey.

Even before the failed coup, Turkey was struggling with major security challenges including attacks by Kurdish militants and Islamic State, a grim reality underscored by tourism data on Thursday showing a 40 percent fall in foreign visitors in June.

Turmoil in Turkey's armed forces raises questions about its ability to contain the Islamic State threat in neighbouring Syria and the renewed Kurdish insurgency in its southeast, military analysts say.

Among the nearly 1,700 military personnel discharged on Wednesday were 149 generals and admirals, a Turkish government official said.

Two four-star generals from the land forces also resigned, CNN Turk reported, without giving a reason. Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said the military council decisions would be announced later on Thursday and take immediate effect.

The Islamist-rooted AK Party, founded by Erdogan and in power since 2002, has long had testy relations with the military, which for decades saw itself as the ultimate guardian of Turkey's secular order and the legacy of the nation's founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. The military has ousted four governments in the past 60 years.

However, Erdogan says the armed forces have been infiltrated in recent years by Gulen's supporters. 'The army has to stop being the army of the Fethullah Gulen terrorist organisation,' Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said.