Turkey launched a mass new purge of the police and judiciary today as parliament debated controversial legal reforms that have heightened the crisis engulfing Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Around 470 police were sacked or reassigned in the capital Ankara and another dozen police chiefs were removed from their posts in the western port city of Izmi, local media reported.
It followed a similar move yesterday by the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) which removed 96 judges and prosecutors from their jobs.
It is the latest in a series of mass shakeups since the eruption in mid-December of a corruption scandal targeting several top politicians and business leaders including Erdogan allies.
At least 2,000 police and prosecutors have been dismissed or reassigned in recent weeks in what critics have blasted as government efforts to stifle the graft probe.
Erdogan, on a visit to Brussels yesterday to try to advance Turkey's EU membership bid, defended the government moves to tighten its control of the judiciary despite concerns at home and abroad.
Those who fell victim to the latest reshuffle include five chief prosecutors and other senior figures who oversaw the trials against hundreds of top military officers convicted of plotting against the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government.
The purge extended to the other sectors at the weekend, with the dismissal of high-ranking officials at the top banking watchdog, communications regulatory body and state television.
Dozens of people including the sons of ministers, and business leaders were rounded up a month ago on allegations of bribery in construction projects, money laundering, gold smuggling and illicit dealings with Iran, setting off the worst crisis in Erdogan's 11-year rule.
