More than 6,000 people have been arrested so far – including military officers, colonels and judges accused of ties to the revolt.
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Turkey’s Western allies have expressed solidarity with the government over the coup attempt but also alarm at the scale and swiftness of the response, urging the country to adhere to democratic values.
With Turkey’s big cities still on edge, Turkish security forces killed an armed attacker who shot at them from a vehicle outside the Ankara courthouse where suspected coup plotters were appearing before judges. 30 regional governors and 50 high-ranking civil servants were dismissed.
The Turks demand that Washington hand over the cleric it claims hatched the plot, Fethullah Gulen, who since 1999 has led his Hizmet movement from rural Pennsylvania. Some were shown in photographs stripped to their underpants and handcuffed on the floors of police buses and a sports hall. A court remanded 26 generals and admirals in custody yesterday, Turkish media said. Anadolu reported the group includes former Air Force commander Gen.
The government alleged the coup conspirators were loyal to moderate US -based cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Erdogan has often accused of trying to overthrow the government. He denies any involvement.
Ankara has demanded Washington hand Gulen over, and Erdogan told global broadcaster CNN yesterday that an extradition request would be filed this week.
Turkey has formally requested the extradition of an exiled Muslim cleric from the United States, the Turkish prime minister said today. Yildirim rejected that demand.
Even the act of suspending air flights to and from Turkey until August 31 – hat decision is said to be revised to August 15, which is still unacceptable – is an unfriendly act.
Thousands of alleged coup plotters have been rounded up since Friday’s failed putsch, in which more than 260 people were killed. Officials previously said the overall death toll was more than 290.
At least 208 people, including members of the security forces and civilians, were martyred in Istanbul and Ankara and almost 1,500 others wounded as they protested Friday’s attempted coup.
On Monday, according to Anadolu, prosecutors entered Incirlik Air Base in southern Turkey, which is key to the US -led campaign against the Islamic State group.
Mr. Gulen has denied any involvement in the plot and suggested instead that it was orchestrated by Mr. Erdogan in order to justify the subsequent crackdown.
Though government officials offered reassurances that life has returned to normal, warplanes patrolled Turkey’s skies overnight in a sign that authorities feared that the threat was not yet over. He was able to fly into Istanbul in the early hours of Saturday, after rebel pilots had his plane in their sights but did not shoot it down. “Why should I keep them and feed them in prisons for years to come, that’s what the people say”.
Death penalty In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel warned Ankara that reinstating the death penalty, as broached by Mr Erdogan after the coup was thwarted, would “in no way” be compatible with Turkey’s goal of European Union membership.
Kerry also told CNN that Turkey has made no formal request for Gulen’s extradition, and that he’d asked the country’s foreign minister to make the official request, saying that “the United States is not harboring anybody”. Several European officials have said that such a move would be the end of Turkey’s attempts to join.
“We stand squarely on the side of the elected leadership in Turkey. We previously abolished it, but we can always go back and re-introduce it”, Erdogan said.
Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) runs the prosperous Sisli district.
Human rights groups, foreign policy analysts and – privately – USA diplomats suspect that Erdogan is using the coup attempt as cover to cleanse the government of his political enemies.
The official said Turkey’s military command had been dealt “a heavy blow in terms of organisation” but was still functioning in coordination with the intelligence agency, police and the government. Some high-ranking military officials involved in the plot have fled overseas, he said. This is not the way to help a friend that has just emerged from the awful trauma of an attempted coup.
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“Some news reports – and, unfortunately, some public figures – have speculated that the United States in some way supported the coup attempt”, Bass wrote.
