Turkey marks coup anniversary with another purge

Celebration of the first anniversary Saturday of the failed coup against President Tayyip Erdogan was preceded the day before by the sacking of 7,000 police officers, civil servants, journalists and academics under a new executive decree. The purge up until then had cost 150,000 employees of state institutions their jobs and thrown more than 50,000 into jail. Last week, hundreds of thousands gathered in Istanbul at the end of a 450km “justice” march against the government. Erdogan accused them of attempting a second coup and terrorism. The anniversary today was declared a national holiday.