Turkey: 61% of appeals on state of emergency concluded

ANKARA

More than 60% of applications concerning measures under Turkey’s state of emergency after a defeated coup in June 2016 have been concluded, and 6,000 were accepted, according to a presidential commission examining the process.

In a report released Friday, Turkey's Inquiry Commission on the State of Emergency Measures gave details of applications over measures such as the dismissal of public officials, scholarship cancellations, retired personnel having their ranks annulled, and the closure of some institutions.

The commission took nearly 133,000 measures, including some 126,000 dismissals from public service over links to FETO, the terrorist group behind the coup and a plot to infiltrate the Turkish state.

According to the report, the commission started its decision-making process in December 2017, and over 126,000 applications were submitted as of today, June 28.

The commission concluded more than 60 percent of these applications, said the report.

Out of 77,900 applications decided on, 6,000 were accepted and 71,900 rejected, it said.

Some 48,000 applications remain pending.

A data processing infrastructure was set up in order to receive, archive, and examine applications in an electronic environment, the commission said, adding that information on the applications acquired from more than 20 institutions and organizations was recorded in the system.

Some 250 staffers, including 80 rapporteurs -- judges, experts, and inspectors -- were employed for the application review process.

A total of 475,000 files -- including personnel files transferred from their institutions, court files and former applications -- were classified, registered and achieved.

The institutions, where the applicants most recently held the office were notified of the commission’s rulings, and they are due to re-appoint dismissed state workers whose applications were accepted.

Within 60 days as of the notification date, the Council of Judges and Prosecutors may appeal an annulment action by the commission and the institution or organization where the relevant person last held office, said the report.

The applicants can track their status on the commission's website.

Since the 2016 defeated coup in Turkey, Turkish institutions, including the military, have been working to find and expel elements of the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), the group behind the coup.

A two-year state of emergency following the coup was lifted on July 20, 2018, and since then the Turkish Armed Forces have dismissed 1,412 personnel, according to a data analysis by Anadolu Agency.

The government declared the state of emergency following the July 15, 2016 defeated coup orchestrated by FETO and its U.S.-based leader Fetullah Gulen, which left 251 people martyred and nearly 2,200 injured.

Ankara also accuses FETO of being behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police, and judiciary.