Journalist gather outside a court building to support their colleague journalist Bulent Mumay, who was detained on Wednesday.
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Gulen and his followers were blamed for the coup, with Erdogan accusing them of attempting to create a “parallel structure” in the country’s institutions, including the police, judiciary, media and armed forces.
Ankara has demanded that the US extradite Gulen, but Washington insists on “concrete evidence” linking Gulen to the July 15 coup attempt as a precondition for his extradition. They include 45 newspapers including the daily Taraf newspaper, 16 television stations, including a children’s channel, 23 radio stations, 15 magazines and 29 publishing houses. The list comprised many regional media outlets as well as several Gulen-linked media that had already been seized by the state.
Turkey issued arrest warrants Wednesday for 47 former staff of the Zaman newspaper, an official said, in a growing crackdown on citizens suspected of links to alleged coup mastermind Fethullah Gulen. Such detentions have raised concerns that people could be targeted simply for criticizing the government. Gulen himself has denied any knowledge of the attempted coup.
“This is a matter of national security for us in Turkey”. Correct arrest and custody procedures were being applied under a three-month state of emergency announced last week, it said.
The country’s energy minister, meanwhile, lamented what he said was a lack of strong support from European nations and the United States toward Turkey’s efforts to counter the “anti-democratic” process. The clampdown has drawn criticism from the European Union, which Turkey aspires to join.
The country is, therefore, calling on the Nigerian government to shut them down. They misled the public by putting Turkey in the name of their school.
Erdogan is also set to visit Russia on August 9 to fix ties harmed by the downing of a Russian warplane by Turkish jets previous year, officials said Tuesday, in an apparent sign of Turkey’s post-coup diplomatic strategy.
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Although Turkey has couched foreign policy in terms of human rights, detractors claim Erdogan, a Sunni Muslim, was leaning toward a sectarian position in various conflicts and using language seen as critical of Shiite Muslims in Iraq and elsewhere. This has fuelled concerns that the investigation may be turning into a witch-hunt of the president’s political opponents. “The temptation to give Mr. Erdogan whatever he wants is understandable”. At least 270 people were killed on both sides.
