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Wikileaks has been hacked after the website released the first of thousands of private emails sent by senior members of Turkey's AKP Party.

The website released the emails in response to the purge by the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of the country's political, military and educational classes following the apparent attempted coup last week.

In a statement on its website, Wikileaks said: "Today, 11pm Anakara Time, WikiLeaks releases part one of the AKP Emails. AKP, or the Justice & Development Party, is the ruling party of Turkey and is the political force behind the country's president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

(Image: Wikileaks)

"Part one of the series covers 762 mail boxes beginning with 'A' through to 'I' containing 294,548 email bodies together with many thousands of attached files. The emails come from "akparti.org.tr", the AKP's primary domain.

"The most recent was sent on July 6, 2016. The oldest dates back to 2010.

(Image: Getty)

"It should be noted that emails associated with the domain are mostly used for dealing with the world, as opposed to the most sensitive internal matters.

"The material was obtained a week before the attempted coup. However, WikiLeaks has moved forward its publication schedule in response to the government's post-coup purges. We have verified the material and the source, who is not connected, in any way, to the elements behind the attempted coup, or to a rival political party or state."

Tensions remain high in Turkey as the government rounds up and arrested tens of thousands of military officers, teachers and other state workers and blocks news outlets in the fallout from Friday's coup.

Turkey has banned Islamic funerals for dead coup supporters and warned imams not to carry out the ceremonies.

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Hundreds of people were killed in the apparent attempted coup last Friday which was crushed by the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The Religious Affairs Directorate announced today that imams would not lead prayers for “pro-coup soldiers who targeted our nation”.

The state directly employees all of Turkey's 75,000 imams.

Around 20 alleged coup supporters were killed during fighting. Around 240 other people also died in the violence, including 145 civilians.Turkey has banned Islamic funerals for dead coup supporters and warned imams not to carry out the ceremonies.

Hundreds of people were killed in the apparent attempted coup last Friday which was crushed by the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The Religious Affairs Directorate announced today that imams would not lead prayers for “pro-coup soldiers who targeted our nation”.

The state directly employees all of Turkey's 75,000 imams.

Around 20 alleged coup supporters were killed during fighting. Around 240 other people also died in the violence, including 145 civilians.

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