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AKP gov’t to extend emergency rule for another 3 months

The Justice and Development Party (AKP) government is expected to extend emergency rule for another three months, the Cumhuriyet daily reported on Thursday.

Five days after an attempted coup on July 15, the government on July 20 declared a three-month emergency rule to effectively run the country in the post-coup era. The daily says the government is now preparing to extend it on Oct. 20, making sure that the country will be run by emergency measures until Jan 20, 2017.

Critics of emergency rule cite the government’s reliance on decrees to run the country, leading to abuses of human rights and sowing fear and mistrust within society.

The government has by means of its decrees swept the entire state bureaucracy with massive purges and removed political non-loyalists from bureaucratic positions. To date, 150,000 public servants, including police, judges, generals and other military officers, teachers, financial experts and diplomats have been either dismissed or sacked by decrees.

Only last week the government fired 50,000 public servants. Under emergency rule, those dismissed are unable to seek legal redress to reinstate their rights or get their jobs back.

The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) recently criticized the government for its massive purges, saying it has turned into a devastating witch-hunt leading to the dismissal of many innocent people.

The government portrays who are dismissed as coup plotters or supporters and having links to US-based Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen.

Turkish authorities blame Gülen for the coup attempt. The scholar denies any connection to it.

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