President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Thursday that the Turkish military is entirely cleansed of putschist officers loyal to the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ), which was involved in last year's failed coup attempt. Speaking at the Turkish Military Academy's graduation ceremony, Erdoğan, who is also the Commader-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, explained that the academy has been re-structured since the July 15 coup attempt, and that the old system has been totally overhauled.
"We see that those who try to exert power over our country start working their way through the military academies. It is very important that almost all of the high-ranking military officers that graduated from these schools in last 10 years had acted together with the coup plotters," Erdoğan said, adding that the military is one of the common values for the Turkish nation just like the founder of the country, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Erdoğan stressed that the Turkish military is not the military of the coup plotters, but of the Turkish nation. He further said no interference in the military would be allowed and any attack that is made on the Turkish military is an attack against him.
"The Turkish Military Academy, with both its academic staff and students rejuvenated, has only one aim, to raise the most capable military officers for the Turkish military," Erdoğan said, adding that those who try to put in another mission to the academy will not be allowed.
FETÖ's infiltration into the military has been discussed since the 1990s. Authorities revealed that more than 2,000 military students were forced out of military schools over the past decade. Inhumane training conditions in the orientation camp and health problems as an outcome of it and personal matters with commanders or trials based on fabricated evidence, namely the Ergenekon and Balyoz (Sledgehammer) cases, were serious reasons for their disappointment in this process, which were all led by FETÖ at the time. After July 15, the government has regulated a set of new policies to clarify and prevent any further intervention by FETÖ at military schools. As a part of this restructuring plan, military high schools have been closed since it was revealed that FETÖ was regularly stealing and cheating on military school entrance exams. In addition, military academies started to function under the auspices of the National Education Ministry.
"We are continuing and will continue to fight against the traitors. Yet we will not let anyone see this as an opportunity and wear out our soldiers," Erdoğan said, indicating that in these times, they need the capabilities of the military more than ever, referring to the counterterrorism operations both in and outside of Turkey, particularly in Syria and Iraq.
FETÖ, led by U.S.-based Fetullah Gülen, orchestrated the foiled coup attempt that killed 249 people on July 15, 2016. Through its members in the military, ranging from low-ranking officers to generals, the terrorist group sought to seize power and assassinate President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, according to prosecutors. Strong public resistance to the coup is credited with quelling the insurrection. FETÖ had already been subject to numerous investigations and trials in the wake of its first two attempts to topple the government in 2013. Tens of thousands of people have been detained and arrested for links to the terrorist group under a state of emergency that was declared after the coup bid.
"To be frank, today, in terms of the abilities of its personnel and experience, Turkey probably has one of the most powerful militaries in the world," Erdoğan said.
"During the Syrian crisis, we see once more that when we get in trouble, there are no societies other than our own brothers to help us. Unfortunately, we are aware of the fact that allies and friendly nations are not in the situation of helping us in terms of their military power," Erdoğan said, adding that Turkey has to deal with its problems alone.
