Turkey removes about 8,000 security personnel in latest purge

Turkish authorities have removed about 8,000 security personnel from duty, the government's official gazette said on Friday, the latest purge of people suspected of having links to those behind a failed coup in July.

Of the personnel removed, it said 7,669 were police and 323 were members of the gendarmerie.

The gazette also said that retired judges and prosecutors would be allowed to return to work if they applied to do so in the next two months, after about 3,300 judiciary officials were dismissed since the July 15 putsch.

Recently, a Turkish court placed under arrest three former top diplomats, including an advisor to ex-president Abdullah Gul, over links to the coup.

An Ankara court remanded Gurcan Balik, Ali Findik and Tuncay Babali in custody ahead of trial over suspected links to the US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen who is accused of masterminding the coup, the state-run Anadolu news agency said.