107,174 state workers sacked after FETÖ coup attempt

Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdağ said yesterday that since the defeated 2016 coup attempt carried out by the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ), more than 107,000 civil servants have been dismissed for alleged ties to the group. "The number of personnel dismissed through statutory decrees is 110,778, and the number of reinstated people is 3,604," leading to a net total of 107,174 dismissed, Bozdağ told Parliament's Interior Commission.

FETÖ and its U.S.-based leader, Fetullah Gülen, orchestrated the coup attempt, which left 249 people dead. Ankara also accuses FETÖ of being behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through infiltration of state institutions, particularly the military, police and judiciary.

"To date, a total of 105,151 people have applied to the State of Emergency Procedures Investigation Commission," in the wake of the defeated coup, Bozdağ said. Out of rulings on 1,562 people, the commission ruled in favor of 41 cases and against the rest. The commission was established to allow civil servants to appeal legal action taken against them under the state of emergency following the coup attempt.

Bozdağ said there are no people in prison who unwittingly had ByLock on their phones - the encrypted smartphone app used by FETÖ. "The unjust suffering of our citizens who were aggrieved by FETÖ is not continuing," Bozdağ asserted.

ByLock was used by FETÖ members to communicate during and after the coup attempt. Since the discovery of nearly 11,500 smartphone users who were directed to ByLock without their knowledge, their names have been removed from lists of accused users and courts were told to re-examine the cases against them.