Alwaght- Turkish government suspended more than two hundred officers of its Coast Guard and Gendarmerie forces in the wake of failed mid-July military coup.
A total of 265 people have been suspended from the gendarmerie and the Turkish Coast Guard for suspected links to the US-based opposition leader Fetullah Gulen, The interior ministry said.
Ankara blames Gulen for leading the failed coup attempt in last July when several units of the Turkish army took tanks and soldiers to the streets to topple the government of the President Erdogan.
The move failed after supporters of the president came to streets to resist the coup.
The ministry announced the suspensions of 153 people in the gendarmerie and 112 others in the Coast Guard.
Ankara also detained 73 air force pilots on Thursday as part of the same crackdown on opposition groups it accuses of links with Fetullah Gulen. The operations focused on an air base in the central Turkish province of Konya.
The latest detentions will bring to more than 300 the number of pilots dismissed or arrested as part of the coup investigation.
Ankara began a broad cleansing of people linked to the US-based opposition leader, Fethullah Gulen who is accused by Turkey of leading the coup attempt. The ruling AK party has arrested over 35,000 people and sacked or suspended more than 100,000 others in the civil service, judiciary, police, military and elsewhere.
Gulen denies involvement in the failed coup.
