As Turkey’s government prepares to commemorate thwarting the attempted overthrow of President Tayyip Erdogan, around 50,000 people remain in jail awaiting trial and 150,000 people have been suspended from work<br /><br />A quarter of judges and prosecutors have been sacked, leaving under-resourced courts swamped with tens of thousands of cases against people targeted in the crackdown.<br /><br />In the attempted coup rogue soldiers commandeered warplanes, tanks and helicopters, attacked parliament and tried to abduct Erdogan. Around 250 people were killed.<br /><br />The president’s ruling AK Party says it was planned by supporters of U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen.<br /><br />“Erdogan thinks if he gets rid of me, he thinks ending me will end the movement. He couldn’t be more wrong.” https://t.co/FlkORrE0l8— NPR (@NPR) July 11, 2017<br /><br />It claims they were deeply embedded in Turkey’s institutions – the army, schools and courts – and that only a massive purge could neutralise the threat.<br /><br />But for those targeted in the crackdown the effect has been devastating. <br /><br />Stripped either of their liberty or their livelihood, they have little prospect of employment.<br /><br />Critics say there’s been an erosion of legal safeguards and they accuse Erdogan of using last year’s attempted coup as an excuse to trample on constitutional rights.<br /><br />The crackdown, as well as a bitterly fought April referendum which granted greater presidential powers to Erdogan, have strained Turkey’s ties with the European Union and put its decades-old ambition to join the bloc in limbo.<br /><br />Turkey’s justice ministry says “procedures” have been launched against 169,000 people. <br /><br />Some had used a messaging app favoured by Gulen’s network, others worked at schools founded by his supporters or held accounts at a Gulen-linked bank.<br /><br />Even ownership of one-dollar bills has been enough to raise suspicion. Authorities believe Gulen supporters, labelled the Gulenist Terrorist Organisation by the government, used the notes to identify fellow members.<br />Arrested soldiers have been paraded in court in front of television cameras, crowds throwing nooses at them in a call to reinstate the death penalty for the coup plotters. <br /><br />Other detainees wait to learn their fate. <br /><br />The government acknowledging that some mistakes will be made in the wide-ranging purge, and that 33,000 people have already been restored to their posts.<br /><br />People wrongly caught up could also apply to a commission which is starting to operate.<br /><br />Despite the crackdown President Erdogan still has strong support in the country, although last weekend hundreds of thousands of opposition supporters took paty in a rally in Istanbul.<br /><br />Huge crowd rallies in #İstanbul against Erdoğan’s post-coup crackdown https://t.co/LnafRaATh5 #Turkey pic.twitter.com/eZ8FVGs09y— Yannis Koutsomitis (@YanniKouts) July 9, 2017<br />
