Turkey declares 3-month state of emergency after failed coup

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey's president on Wednesday declared a three-month state of emergency following a botched coup attempt, declaring he would rid the military of the "virus" of subversion and giving the government sweeping powers to expand a crackdown that has already included mass arrests and the closure of hundreds of schools.

Turkey imposed emergency rule in the southeast of Turkey in 1987, allowing officials to set curfews, issue search and arrest warrants and restrict gatherings as the security forces fought Kurdish rebels.

Erdogan's government said it has fired nearly 22,000 education ministry workers, mostly teachers, taken steps to revoke the licenses of 21,000 other teachers at private schools and sacked or detained half a dozen university presidents in a campaign to root out alleged supporters of a U.S.-based Muslim cleric blamed for the failed insurrection.

The education ministry said it decided to close 626 private schools and other establishments under investigation for "crimes against the constitutional order and the running of that order," the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.

The two allies cooperate in the U.S.-led war against the Islamic State group, with American military planes flying missions from Turkey's Incirlik air base into neighboring Iraq and Syria.

A total of 50,000 civil service employees have been fired in the purges, which have reached Turkey's national intelligence service and the prime minister's office.