The government is demanding the extradition of the cleric Fethullah Gulen, who has lived in the United States for almost two decades, accusing him of being behind the attempt, which he denies.
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Turkish authorities also formally charged 99 of the country’s roughly 360 military generals for their alleged role in the attempted military coup.
“There are 208 people who have been unfortunately martyred in this coup attempt: 60 of them police officers, three of them soldiers and 145 civilians are our hero martyrs”, he said. “So this is sufficient ground”.
“While we do not discuss extraditions publicly, if Turkey does decide to submit an extradition request for Mr. Gulen, it will be considered under the terms of the US-Turkey extradition agreement, like all other extradition requests”, the spokesperson told Sputnik. The cleric has denied any involvement in the attempted coup. The base, which is used by Turkish and US forces in the air campaign against Islamic State, has been without power in the days since the failed coup.
“I urge the US government to reject any effort to abuse the extradition process to carry out political vendettas”, the statement said.
The latest purges were meant to blunt the influence of Gulen, an Erodgan rival who has been in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania since the late 1990s and who the government has long accused of being behind a “parallel terrorist organization”.
A Turkish official acknowledged that Gulen’s followers in the armed forces had been under investigation for some time, but denied that an arrest list had been prepared in advance.
Tuesday’s dismissals touched every aspect of government life.
Turkish media, in rapid-fire reports, said the Ministry of Education fired 15,200 people across the country, the Interior Ministry fired 8,777 employees and Turkey’s Board of Higher Education requested the deans’ resignations.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ordered 257 people were sacked from the prime minister’s office and 442 from the religious affairs office.
Since the botched attempt to take control, 9,000 people have been detained in a widespread crackdown on his opponents.
Turkey’s military carried out air strikes against members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in northern Iraq, killing 20 militants, broadcaster NTV said on Wednesday.
Asked about the scale of the purges, U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner cautioned Turkish authorities not to overreach.
“We believe Turkey has gone beyond what we wanted to see”, a second official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The European Union reminded Turkey on Monday that it is bound by its commitments under the European Convention on Human Rights and as a member of the Council of Europe not to reintroduce the death penalty. Several European officials have said such a move would be the end of Turkey’s attempts to join.
He said he was ready to reinstate the death penalty if the Turkish people demanded it and parliament approved the legislation, adding: “You can not put aside the people’s demands”.
“I think that President Erdogan has made it very clear that they will do whatever it takes to – in their words – “secure Turkey”, and if that means leveraging Incirlik and other military bases, I’m convinced they will do it”, said Walker.
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United States officials have said Turkey must provide proof that Mr Gulen was involved in the coup attempt.
