Following the vicious coup attempt last week by the Gülenist Terror Organization (FETÖ) – also referred to as the Gülen Movement – which resulted in the deaths of 246 police officers, soldiers and civilians, the Turkish Armed Forces' (TSK) 2033 Action Plan will undergo extensive revisions including the suspension of military high schools as well as vacating the Presidential Guard regiment of Turkey. While an investigation is underway to establish the links between Gülenists and junta officers, incidents including the discovery of a FETÖ-linked former police officer inside a tank targeting civilians and confessions given by officers have already revealed connections. In this respect, the TSK is taking extensive measures to prevent any potential repeated infiltration by Gülenists.
The measures, which will soon be applied and issued as statutory decrees, will initially address military high schools that have been serving as FETÖ's human resource allocation. While the military high schools are temporarily halted, the TSK will recruit 250,000 soldiers from public high schools to replace the purged Gülenist soldiers. Additionally, the Turkish Presidential Guard regiment is to be vacated as part of counter-terrorism measures being taken to stop the Gülenist infiltration. The TSK's 2033 Action Plan further includes promoting those current colonels who are not force commanders to the command echelon. The promotion of colonels to the command echelon of Turkey's General Staff will be in accordance with their personal history and achievements.
Prior to the July 15 coup attempt, operations against Gülenists had revealed that members of the movement had infiltrated the police force, judicial system and military with efforts to overthrow the democratically elected government while illegally wiretapping thousands of people, including the prime minister, journalists and other prominent figures. Gülenists run a vast network of schools around the globe but are primarily invested in charter schools in the U.S., which receive government funding but operate independent of the public school system. Dozens of schools associated with Gülenists are facing harsh criticism and are under investigation over the alleged misuse of federal grants and the abuse of a visa scheme being used to funnel foreign teachers into charter schools that are brought from Turkey to live in the U.S.
