AKIPRESS.COM - Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said Thursday that a total of 88 ministry personnel had been dismissed since the failed July 15 coup, reports Anadolu Agency.

Speaking to reporters after visiting a police special forces headquarters in Gölbaşı to the south of the capital Ankara that was bombed the night of the coup attempt, Çavuşoğlu said: “These traitors should not infiltrate state institutions.”

"We are taking every step carefully. We formed a commission and are currently working hard on the issue. The dismissal of other people is likely in the coming days. There are two ambassadors among those expelled. We are working on the case of some other envoys as well. We need more information,” he said.

Çavuşoğlu said one official working at Turkey’s consulate in Kazan, the capital of Tatarstan (federal subject of Russia), fled to Japan in the wake of the coup attempt.

An official at the Japanese embassy in Ankara confirmed an employee from the consulate had arrived in Japan. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said: “The Japanese government will evaluate this issue with the most appropriate way, within domestic law.”

The two ambassador-level officials dismissed were Gürcan Balık, a former chief foreign affairs advisor to ex-President Abdullah Gül, and Tuncay Babalı, a former ambassador to Canada.

They are among those suspected of links to Fetullah Gülen and the Fetullah Gülen Terrorist Organization said to be responsible for the coup attempt.

More than 44,000 people employed in state institutions have been dismissed so far amid a nationwide probe of the deadly coup attempt.

The Education Ministry announced earlier that more than 21,000 employees had been dismissed, most of them teachers.

The Defense Ministry said 262 military judges and prosecutors had been dismissed while 529 people at agencies linked to the Transport, Maritime Affairs and Communications Ministry were also sacked.