Turkey sees swift overhaul of intelligence agency, gendarmerie after coup
Turkey will soon complete an overhaul of its intelligence agency and make new appointments to its gendarmerie as it tries to rid its security apparatus of the followers of a US-based cleric blamed for an attempted coup, officials said on August 3.
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President Tayyip Erdogan said new appointments in the gendarmerie, responsible for security in rural areas and key in the fight against Kurdish militants, would come within 48 hours.
Interior Minister Efkan Ala said work on restructuring the MIT intelligence agency was ongoing and "should not take too long".
More than 60,000 people in the military, judiciary, civil service and education have been detained, suspended or placed under investigation following the July 15 coup attempt, prompting fears among Western allies and rights groups that Erdogan is using the events to crack down on dissent.
The government says the purges are justified by the gravity of the threat to the state. More than 230 people were killed in the attempted putsch and parliament was bombed by the country's own aircraft and tanks for the first time in its history.
In a speech to the Religious Affairs Directorate, the country's top religious authority, Erdogan said he had initially misread the intentions of cleric Fethullah Gulen, whose network of followers were at one time close to his ruling AK Party.
