THE ” PURGE ” CONTINUES IN FASCIST TURKEY, AS PARANOIA SETS IN, OVER 15,OOO DETAINED, NO ONE IS SAFE !

Turkey’s Interior Minister Efkana Ala has reported that over 15,000 people have now been detained as part of the post-coup purge, including over 10,000 Turkish soldiers. This large number of soldiers captured is in spite of claims by the military itself that only a little over 8,000 troops participated overall in the coup.

Of that over 15,000, only 8,113 are actually under arrest, with nearly half of them just being detained without charges at this point. Under the new state of emergency, the fascist Erdogan government can detain people for up to 30 days, compared to the old limit of four.

The detentions appear to be almost wholly centered on the military, and other law enforcement, with 2,901 police and 2,684 described as either judges or lawyers. This covers all but a few hundred detainees, according to the official numbers, though there have been reports of detained reporters, teachers, and members of virtually every government ministry.

Officials have repeatedly said this is only the beginning of the purge, with over 60,000 people either among the detained or sacked for suspected ties to exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen. Officials blame Gulen for the plot, and have claimed his organization has infiltrated every conceivable part of Turkish society.

************* MORE ATTACKS ON THE PRESS/NEWS MEDIA

With officials continuing to assure the world that coup plotters had infiltrated anything and everything in Turkey, the post-coup purge seems able to target any given industry at any moment. One day, the government is rounding up disloyal generals, and the next it’s firing the dean of every university in the country. Today, it’s the news media’s turn.

Officials are reporting that over 100 media outlets have been closed over ties to exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen, including 45 daily newspapers and 16 television stations. Incredibly, among the newspapers ordered closed was Zaman, which was nationalized for Gulen ties way back in March.

Turkish officials seem insistent that the old Zaman’s influence extended to a coup that happened four months after they were closed, with arrest warrants issued for 47 former employees. That they closed the new Zaman, which they already run, and which has been slavishly loyal to Erdogan, is just bizarre, and reflects growing paranoia about any perceived dissent.

The Erdogan government has long been ruthless in cracking down on critical media at any rate, arresting reporters as “terrorists” for unflattering stories, particularly those critical of government offensives against the ethnic Kurdish minority. That crackdown never really stopped, but the coup has justified an even further acceleration.