Turkiye army expels officers for Ataturk pledge of allegiance

Turkish soldiers in military vehicles return from the Syrian town of Tal Abyad, as they are pictured on the Turkish-Syrian border in Akcakale, Turkey, October 24, 2019. — Reuters

ISTANBUL: Turkiye´s military said on Friday it had dismissed five trainee officers and three of their superiors for pledging allegiance to the founder of modern Turkiye in front of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

During a swearing-in ceremony for new officers in August, the five held their swords to the sky, saying: “We are the soldiers of Mustafa Kemal” and vowed to defend “the secular democratic republic”. They were referring to Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who founded modern Turkiye in 1923 after the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire at the end of World War I.