The Turkish government’s crackdown after a military coup attempt widened into a sweeping purge on Monday, cutting a swath through the security services and reaching deeply into the government bureaucracy and the political and business classes.
The sheer numbers being detained or dismissed were stunning: nearly 18,000 in all, including 6,000 members of the military, almost 9,000 police officers, as many as 3,000 judges, 30 governors and one-third of all generals and admirals, as well as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s own military attaché.
The magnitude of the backlash by Mr. Erdogan suggested that the depth of support for the coup was far greater than it initially appeared, or that the president was using the opportunity to root out all perceived adversaries, or both.
As hopes faded that Mr. Erdogan would try to use the moment to unite the country, instead taking a security-first approach, Western allies began to express alarm at what looked like score-settling. On Monday in Brussels, Secretary of State John Kerry and the European Union’s top diplomat, Federica Mogherini, urged Turkey — a member of NATO and a candidate for membership in the European Union — to show restraint and preserve the rule of law.
“Obviously, NATO also has a requirement with respect to democracy, and NATO will indeed measure very carefully what is happening,” Mr. Kerry said. “And my hope is that Turkey is going to move in ways that do respect what they have said to me many times is the bedrock of their country.”
But for the time, Mr. Erdogan stuck with a single-minded determination to punish anyone deemed disloyal. It was not clear how the state would keep functioning with so many crucial posts suddenly left vacant and paranoia and finger-pointing rampant. The government suspended vacations for the country’s three million civil servants, an effort that seemed intended to make sure the machinery of the state did not halt.
As the purge accelerated on Monday, the government was in particular targeting followers of the cleric Fethullah Gulen, a former ally turned rival who lives in exile in Pennsylvania, and whom Mr. Erdogan has blamed for trying to topple the government.
A senior Turkish official, speaking on the condition of anonymity in line with government protocol, said that members of the Gulen movement in the military had been under investigation for some time and that the group had pushed forward the coup conspiracy out of a sense of emergency when they realized they might face prosecution.
The suspended judges, the senior official said, were allied with the military faction behind the coup. And like others, the official said, they were actually on lists of suspected enemies compiled by the government even before the coup took place.
Turkish officials have acknowledged that the number of people rounded up was likely much greater than the actual roll of conspirators. But they maintain that it is necessary to prevent more attacks against civilians and government buildings, especially while some perpetrators are still at large. In Ankara, closed-door hearings were held for some of the accused plotters.
Mr. Erdogan’s almost singular focus on the purges was probably fueled in part by his realization that support for the coup ran deeper in the military than initially thought — and by having just barely managed to outmaneuver the plotters.
Units from across Turkey’s armed forces, including the air force, the army and the gendarmerie, a military-style police force, worked simultaneously. The coup plotters waged airstrikes on the Parliament building, shut down bridges and seized top military commanders. Fighter jets were able to refuel in midair.
Atlantic Council. He added, “There is a sense there that the entire Turkish system as we know it was imperiled and narrowly escaped.”
The government’s focus on accusations against Mr. Gulen, who has denied any involvement in the coup, has heightened tensions between the United States and Turkey. Turkish officials have publicly reinstated demands that Mr. Gulen be extradited to Turkey — though, according to American officials, no formal judicial request has been made. Some Turkish officials have run with the idea of a global conspiracy, accusing the United States of partnering with Mr. Gulen to orchestrate the coup.
John Bass, the American ambassador to Turkey, issued a statement on Monday saying: “Some news reports — and, unfortunately, some public figures — have speculated that the United States in some way supported the coup attempt. This is categorically untrue, and such speculation is harmful to the decades-long friendship between two great nations.”
Mr. Kerry said Monday that the United States would consider extradition for Mr. Gulen if the Turks “send us evidence, not allegations.”
He continued, “We need to see genuine evidence that withstands the standard of scrutiny that exists in many countries, the system of law with respect to the issue of extradition, and if it meets that standard there’s nothing, there’s no interest we have, in standing in the way of appropriately honoring the treaty that we have with Turkey with respect to extradition.”
Turkey is facing multiple security challenges, including terrorism by the Islamic State and a war with Kurdish militants in the southeast. The upheaval in Turkey’s security services, and the deep divisions within them that the coup attempt laid bare, are likely to affect Turkey’s ability to manage the country’s threats.
He continued, “We need to see genuine evidence that withstands the standard of scrutiny that exists in many countries, the system of law with respect to the issue of extradition, and if it meets that standard there’s nothing, there’s no interest we have, in standing in the way of appropriately honoring the treaty that we have with Turkey with respect to extradition.”
Turkey is facing multiple security challenges, including terrorism by the Islamic State and a war with Kurdish militants in the southeast. The upheaval in Turkey’s security services, and the deep divisions within them that the coup attempt laid bare, are likely to affect Turkey’s ability to manage the country’s threats.
