The state of emergency puts the military firmly under government control, and allows for new laws that critics say could suspend civil rights.
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A state of emergency has never been declared nationwide although it was declared in Turkey’s restive, Kurdish-dominated southeast between 1987 and 2002.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan heads an emergency meeting of the National Security Council in Ankara, Turkey, Wednesday, July 20, 2016. “On the contrary, it aims to protect and strengthen them”.
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim pledged to supply USA authorities with evidence linking the coup attempt to Gulen, who has been exiled in Pennsylvania since the late 1990s.
Erdogan said the coup plotters failed in their attempt to topple the government, adding that they might have some plans for their own fate.
Turkish Parliament members attend a general assembly to discuss the country’s “state of emergency” on Thursday.
Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek has said there will be no interference with market freedoms. “It isn’t martial law of 1990s”, he wrote on Twitter. People will be obliged to carry their identity cards with them. “It won’t be any different from those imposed by our European partners”.
Greek Cypriot officials say Turkey holds the key to deal because it bankrolls the Turkish Cypriot economy and maintains more than 40,000 troops in the breakaway north.
There is some concern within the worldwide community that the ongoing purge of key areas of public life in Turkey will hit the economy and worsen already fraught global relations, in particular with Turkey’s European Union and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation partners.
“The declaration of the state of emergency has the sole goal of taking the necessary measures, in the face of the terrorist threat that our country is facing”, Erdogan told Al Jazeera, citing similar measures taken by France following attacks in Paris a year ago that are still in place.
The president has blamed the coup attempt on US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, a former ally who is believed to have much support in Turkey’s military and state institutions. “We will, one by one, cleanse the state of (Gulen’s followers) and eliminate those who are trying to harm the country”. The government was able to marshal loyalist military forces, and president Erdogan evaded capture – calling on supporters to flood the streets and face down the rebel military.
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Since Friday, some 29,000 government employees have been suspended, including more than 6,300 soldiers and 3,000 members of the judiciary. “It is the Turkish people’s call and the parliament’s right to decide whether to pass the law of death penalty”, Erdogan said. Possibly anticipating investor jitters, Erdogan criticized Standard & Poor’s for downgrading its credit rating for Turkey deeper into “junk” status and said the country would remain financially disciplined.
