Turkey coup: Map shows full scale of President Erdogan's purge

A hundred senior officers charged with 'high-treason' may receive the death penalty

Turkish police arrest Turkish soldiers at Taksim Square in Istanbul on 16 July 2016 (EPA)

President Erdoğan has punished 18,000 people following a failed coup against him in Turkey.

Over 7,500 military personnel and judges have been detained after the attempted coup and another 10,000 civil servants, police officers and state governors are suspended.

Almost all of the major military stations have lost a commander following the crackdown.

The figures comes after Mr Erdoğan vowed to “purge” the “virus” of his enemies from state institutions.

The numbers arrested from the military and navy mean one third of the country’s high ranking officers have been detained.

Senior military officers have started arriving in court after being charged with establishing an armed terrorist organisation, attempting to abolish the constitutional order and "intentional killing".

Another 100 senior officers have been charged with "high-treason" and may receive the death penalty.

Capital punishment has not been used in Turkey since 1984 and was outlawed in 2004, but Mr Erdoğan's supporters have called for the penalty to be reinstated. Mr Erdoğan said on Tuesday he was willing to bring it back “if the people demand it”.

The President dismissed claims by his critics that he was using the coup to crackdown on his enemies as “libel”.

He said: "I'd like to know what a crackdown by Tayyip Erdogan looks like... It's just libel," the BBC reports.

"If Tayyip Erdoğan was an oppressive figure, he wouldn't have won 52 per cent of the vote at the presidential elections," he added.

Mr Erdoğan blamed the uprising on his former ally Fethullah Gülen, the Islamic cleric who lives in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania in the United States.

He claimed the "Gülen group" had destroyed the armed forces and said Turkey would request Gülen be extradited.

Mr Gülen denies any involvement and several analysts have said they do not believe he is involved.