The purge is proving far more destructive than the coup. As I said before, it’s looking more and more like the coup was staged as a pretense for what is happening now.

Ankara (AFP) – Turkey faced fresh accusations it was flouting the rule of law with its purge of 50,000 people after an attempted coup, as the president gathered security chiefs Wednesday for the first time since the putsch.

Authorities have rounded up or sacked tens of thousands of police, judges, teachers and other civil servants from across the state bureaucracy in the aftermath of Friday’s failed bid to seize power by disgruntled elements in the military.

But the purge has sparked an outpouring of global concern with German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman saying: “nearly every day we are seeing new measures that flout the rule of law and that disregard the principle of proportionality.”