Turkey Arrests 300 Presidential Guardsmen over Alleged Coup Links

At least 283 of 300 suspects had already been arrested as of Friday.

The guard are members of the special forces regiment stationed at the presidential palace in Ankara. There are at least 2,500 members, according to local media, the Middle East Eye reported.

The government also announced that 10,800 passports had been suspended over "flight risks" following last Friday's attempted coup.

That number included close to 10,000 green/grey (official) passports held by civil servants, the government said.

More than 50,000 people have been arrested or sacked from state institutions since last Friday's attempted coup.

The arrests as Turkey's Interior Ministry was charged with overseeing all future appoints and promotions of the country's internal security force instead of the military.

"We will bring the gendarmerie under full interior ministry control," Turkey’s Interior Minister Efkan Ala said on Friday, adding that the existing system was "problematic" and needs restructuring.

"We need to break the monopoly on power. We will be in charge of appointments and development."

The gendarmerie is a branch of the country's armed forces responsible for local policing. There are currently an estimated 199,000 soldiers serving in the command, with lower ranks consisting of conscripts.

The shift in responsibility comes a day after a state of emergency was imposed in Turkey with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowing to shake up the country's military following a failed coup a week ago.

“Within a very short amount of time a new structure will be emerging,” Erdogan said of Turkey's armed forces.

“With this new structure, I believe the armed forces will get fresh blood,” he said.

A court in Ankara jailed around 85 generals or admirals, around a quarter of the total, for links to the coup plot.

At least 6,000 less high-ranking soldiers and 2,700 judges and prosecutors have also been arrested, while 8,800 police officers and 15,000 employees of the Education Ministry have been dismissed in the wake of the attempted coup.

Erdogan also said that 15 July – the date of the attempted coup – will be commemorated annually as a “Memorial for the Martyrs” to remember the at least 246 people who were killed when armed forces attempted to storm key sites across the capital and in ensuing street battles.

“The coming generations – civilians, police and military – will not forget our heroic martyrs who fell on the democratic revolution on 15 July,” he told reporters, announcing an annual memorial to be commemorated on the same day.

Crowds of thousands gathered on Bosphorus Bridge in Turkey's second city Istanbul on Thursday night to show their support for the government and their opposition to the coup attempt.