Over 150 Turkish officers, some responsible for training others, were recalled or retired from North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) high command in the wake of a July coup attempt, US Army General, Curtis Scaparrotti, told reporters on Wednesday.
The top NATO commander said he lost 50 per cent of 300 Turkish officers in the alliance’s so-called Allied Command Operations in Belgium, Italy and the Netherlands.
“You lose a good deal of experience, so we are seeing a bit of degradation,” Scaparrotti said, speaking on the sidelines of a two-day meeting of NATO foreign ministers at the military alliance headquarters in Brussels.
Turkey’s government declared a state of emergency following the failed military coup and launched a crackdown on alleged supporters of US-based Islamic preacher, Fethullah Gulen, whom President Recep Tayyip Erdogan holds responsible for the putsch.
Scaparrotti said he was in contact with Turkey’s head of armed forces, General Hulusi Akar, on a nearly weekly basis, and that Akar has been “very direct in his commitment to NATO” and to refilling positions with the right officers as quickly as possible.
About half of the empty positions had been restaffed, Scaparrotti added.
The U.S. general said he had no suspicions that any of the officers were involved with planning the coup and that he was concerned for the officers and their families.
Last month, NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, confirmed that Turkish soldiers working in the military alliance have sought asylum in other countries in the wake of the Turkish government’s crackdown on the military and civil servants following the coup.
