Purge-victim police officer becomes shepherd to make a living

by | May 29, 2018 | Today in Crackdown

Purge-victim police officer becomes shepherd to make a living

A former police officer who was fired from his job with a government decree issued under post-coup emergency rule last year, is now earning his keep by shepherding a herd and working as a doorman at an apartment in Kahramanmaraş province.

The purge-victim who writes under the name “@goksunlu4656“, said in recent a tweet that he had studied for 17 years and became a police officer, yet dismissed from his job “unjustly.”

“We have fought tooth and nail and had attended schools for 17 years. We completed university. We were even ashamed of asking for money from our fathers. We have become public servants by the sweat of our brow. Now I am asking: What is our crime?”

More than 145,000 people have lost their jobs as part of the government’s post-coup crackdown own its critics. It has become common occurrence that teachers, academics, journalists who were impacted by the crackdown shifted to low-profile positions to earn their livings.