Purged police officer dies in workplace accident at quarry in NE Turkey

 

Kani Enön, a former police officer who was fired by an emergency decree as part of Turkey’s post-coup purge of state institutions, died last week while working at a quarry in Turkey’s northeastern province of Gümüşhane, the Kronos news website reported on Wednesday.

Following the failed coup, the Turkish government declared a state of emergency and carried out a massive purge of state institutions under the pretext of an anti-coup fight.

More than 130,000 public servants, including 4,156 judges and prosecutors, as well as 29,444 members of the armed forces were summarily removed from their jobs for alleged membership in or relationships with “terrorist organizations” by emergency decree-laws subject to neither judicial nor parliamentary scrutiny.

According to Turkish media reports, Enön, 32, died on Sept. 20 when part of construction equipment he was repairing fell on him at a quarry belonging to Karatoprak Mining in Gümüşhane.

Enön’s lawyer, Mesut Can Tarım, on Wednesday commented on the incident in a series of tweets, saying that Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu and Turkey’s Security Directorate General, which is affiliated with the ministry, failed to reinstate Enön to his police job although an administrative court ordered them to do so.