Dozens of Local Governors Sacked in Turkey Over Links to PKK, Gulen

Turkey’s Interior Ministry announced Sunday it had fired 28 provincial administrators and district governors for having links to Kurdish militia PKK and cleric Fethullah Gulen.

ANKARA (Sputnik) — A crackdown on public servants began in Turkey after the failed coup of July 15. Ankara blamed Fethullah Gulen, a US-based cleric and the president's former ally, for plotting the attempt to overthrow Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

"Following the investigation that was launched under the law on the state of emergency, 28 heads of local administration have been fired, 24 of them had links to PKK and four to FETO," the statement read.

The ministry added that 12 officials had been arrested. They have already been replaced by new governors. Most of local authorities under scrutiny are in Turkey's southeast and dominated by the Kurdish minority.

#Turkey — Turkish Interior Ministry appoints trustees to 28 municipalities over 'PKK- FETÖ links' — LOCAL https://t.co/mcJ79r6jz3 via @HDNER

— Frank Nordhausen (@NordhausenFrank) 11 сентября 2016 г.

​FETO is the so-called Gulenist Terror Organization that Ankara claims is run by the Muslim cleric from overseas. Turkey is seeking Gulen's extradition from the United States, but Washington wants to see more evidence of his guilt.