Turkey sacks some 4,500 government employees in latest purge

The Turkish government has sacked nearly 4,500 more state employees as it continues its purge against people with suspected links to a US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, which Ankara accuses of orchestrating a failed military coup.

With a decree issued Tuesday, some 2,600 people were fired from the Education Ministry, close to 900 were dismissed from the paramilitary police and 400 others from the police over "national security" concerns.

The decree also affected employees of the state-owned television, the appeals court and the elections board.

Turkey declared a state of emergency following the July 15 coup attempt and embarked on a wide-reaching clampdown on the Gulen's movement, purging over 100,000 of its alleged followers from government positions and formally arrested nearly 41,000.

Nearly 600 companies have been also seized, many of them smaller provincial firms, over links to Gulen.

The European Union and human rights groups have criticised Turkey’s heavy-handed clampdown.

Critics claim the crackdown goes well beyond the suspected coup plotters and targets anyone who has dared show opposition to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Gulen, a former ally turned political foe of Erdogan, has denied involvement in the coup.