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Turkey could find itself facing hefty legal bill for mass purges

The mass expulsions of public servants after the July 15 coup attempt bode big legal trouble for Turkey, legal experts warn.
Turkish police stands guard in front of the Istanbul courthouse on July 20, 2016 following the military coup attempt of July 15.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was today to chair a crunch security meeting in Ankara for the first time since the failed coup, with tens of thousands either detained or sacked from their jobs in a widening purge. / AFP / BULENT KILIC        (Photo credit should read BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images)
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In 2006, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled that Turkish citizen Osman Murat Ulke, who refused to perform compulsory military service as an act of civil disobedience, had been subjected to "civil death" due to the numerous prosecutions he faced after his original jail sentence. Ulke’s expulsion from his profession and the prospect of an interminable series of convictions, which forced him into hiding, constituted a “disproportionate” punishment, the court said.

Many legal experts now believe that thousands, if not tens of thousands, of Turks are potentially in a similar situation in the wake of the July 15 bloody coup attempt. According to officials from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), 70,000 public servants were dismissed in less than two months after the putsch, while some estimate the figure is more than 100,000. Among them, thousands remain in police custody or have been imprisoned pending trial, but the overwhelming majority of those remaining have not yet faced any questioning related to their dismissals.

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