The crackdown comes less than a day after Erdogan said government forces have quelled a coup attempt and that the orchestrators will “pay a heavy price for their treason to Turkey”.
Advertisement
Meanwhile, a group of servicemen announced about transition of power to them. The faction of the military that launched the coup was seeking to block that process, he added.
CNN also reported that Erdogan told a crowd of people chanting “we want the death” penalty at a funeral on Sunday that the Turkish government, “can’t ignore the people’s request in a demonic-this is your right”.
But Turkey’s allies have warned him against excessive retribution as the authorities round up the perpetrators.
The state-run Anadolu news agency said a total of 8,777 employees attached to the ministry were dismissed, including 30 governors, 52 civil service inspectors and 16 legal advisers.
Following the failed coup, the government moved swiftly to shore up President Erdogan’s power and remove those perceived as an enemy, saying on Sunday it had detained 6,000 people.
Turkish authorities were rounding up dozens of generals as well as senior judges and prosecutors accused of supporting a failed military coup.
A spokesman for the German government said that the re-introduction of the death penalty would mean the end to Turkey’s European Union accession negotiations.
European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said that Turkey’s “democratic and legitimate institutions need to be protected”. “I welcomed the strong support shown by the people and all political parties to democracy and to the democratically elected government”.
‘This shows that when the matter at hand is the country, then everything else is incidental, ‘ he added. It also reported that 70 generals and admirals, including former air force commander General Akin Ozturk, have been arrested.
The bloodshed shocked the nation of nearly 80 million, where the army last used force to stage a successful coup more than 30 years ago, and shattered fragile confidence in the stability of a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation member state already rocked by Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) suicide bombings and an insurgency by Kurdish militants.
‘Stability and the rule of law are extremely important in Turkey, both for the Turks and for Europe.
It has also hit financial markets, with the lira at one point losing five percent in value against the dollar although it rallied slightly on Monday.
“We also firmly urge the government of Turkey to maintain calm and stability throughout the country”, Kerry said. The 75-year-old preacher has categorically denied any involvement in the plot and suggested it could have been staged by Erdogan himself.
Conspiracy theorists are saying the attempted military coup was faked, comparing it to the Reichstag fire – the 1933 arson attack on the German parliament building used by Hitler as an excuse to suspend civil liberties and order mass arrests of his opponents.
Advertisement
Yet the coup, in which at least 265 people were killed, was thwarted as Erdogan rushed back to Istanbul from a Mediterranean holiday and urged people to take to the streets to support his government.
