Turkey dismisses 5 military academy graduates for taking discontinued secular oath

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ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Five military academy graduates and three of their immediate superiors were dismissed from the Turkish Armed Forces for taking a pro-secular oath during their graduation ceremony, the defense ministry announced on Friday

The Ministry of National Defense launched a disciplinary inquiry into the graduation ceremony after a video emerged showing about 400 graduates raising their swords and chanting “We are the soldiers of Mustafa Kemal” — a reference to the secular founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk — after the formal ceremony had ended.

The graduates also took the Officer’s Oath about defending a secular and democratic Turkey, which was discontinued in 2022.

The Ministry’s High Disciplinary Board ruled in favor of the dismissals, stating that no actions contrary to discipline would be tolerated, the ministry announced. It didn't name those who were dismissed.

The investigation into the Aug. 30 ceremony was initiated after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who attended the event, vowed to purge those responsible for the oath.

Turkey has become more overtly religious under Erdogan, shedding some of the secularist traditions introduced by Ataturk.

Turkey’s military has traditionally viewed itself as the guarantor of secularism, which has resulted in a series of coups. It led three takeovers between 1960 and 1980 and toppled a conservative government in 1997.

In 2016, an attempt to overthrow Erdogan and his religious-conservative administration was foiled, and thousands of people were purged from the armed forces, the judiciary and other public institutions. Erdogan's government blamed the coup on the followers of U.S.-based Muslim cleric, Fethullah Gulen, who died last year.

In addition to the oath controversy, this year’s graduation stood out for being the first time in Turkey’s history that women graduated at the top of their respective classes in all three branches of the military — the army, the navy and the air force.