Erdogan, an Islamist who has led Turkey as prime minister or president since 2003, has vowed to clean the “virus” responsible for the plot from all state institutions.
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His spokesman yesterday hit out at suggestions from Fethullah Gulen, the imam based in the United States who is blamed by Mr Erdogan for orchestrating the uprising, that the president organised it to strengthen his position.
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim announced the request Tuesday in Parliament and on Twitter referred to Gulen as a “terrorist leader”.
Academics were banned from travelling overseas on Wednesday in what a Turkish official said was a temporary measure to prevent the risk of alleged coup plotters at universities from fleeing.
“Coups are not a good thing”, Trudeau said in French when asked about Turkey at an Ottawa-area event. “I categorically deny such accusations”, Gulen said earlier. “Any attempt to overthrow the country is a betrayal to our unity and is treason”.
Washington/Ankara: Turkey has officially requested the United States government for the extradition of Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, who was accused by Ankara of plotting a failed military coup.
Obama offered USA assistance for Ankara’s investigation into the attempted coup and pressed Erdogan to proceed according to the democratic principles outlined in Turkey’s constitution, Earnest said.
The bloodshed shocked the nation, 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 Daesh suicide bombings and an insurgency by Kurdish militants.
A request to extradite Gulen would face legal and political hurdles in the United States.
The report emerged less than a week after a failed coup in Turkey reportedly left more than 200 people dead.
The government has gutted some of the security forces, dismissing nearly 9,000 people from the Interior Ministry, mostly police officers, and hundreds of others from various ministries.
Among those detained are at least 118 generals and admirals, accounting for a third of the general-rank command of the Turkish military, according to Turkish state broadcaster TRT.
The latest suspensions came a day after the same ministry suspended 15,200 personnel and also revoked the licences of 21,000 teachers working in private institutions across Turkey.
The defence ministry is investigating all military judges and prosecutors, and has suspended 262 of them, while 900 police officers in the capital Ankara were also suspended.
(AP Photo/Hussein Malla). Supporters of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wave their national flags during a pro-government rally at Kizilay main square, in Ankara, Turkey, Wednesday, July 20, 2016.
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 it to adhere to democratic values.
A former ally-turned critic of Erdogan, he suggested the president staged it as an excuse for a crackdown after a steady accumulation of control during 14 years in power.
Erdogan supporters outside Gulen’s Pennsylvania home have been calling him inflammatory names following the weekend violence. Gulen’s supporters accused Erdogan of scapegoating the cleric to grab more power.
Gulen is a reclusive cleric who leads a popular movement called Hizmet, which includes hundreds of secular co-ed schools, free tutoring centers, hospitals and relief agencies credited with addressing Turkey’s social problems. “We will prevail & publish”, WikiLeaks tweeted Monday night.
The WikiLeaks website appeared operational Tuesday morning, and WikiLeaks said it planned to go ahead with publishing the #ErdoganEmails on Tuesday, adding that all 300,000 were internal to Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party.
It was unclear when the other 500,000 documents would be released.
The coup crumbled after Erdogan, on holiday with his family at the coastal resort of Marmaris, phoned in to a television news programme and called for his followers to take to the streets.
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But he said Canada is “especially concerned” about reports Turkey might bring back the death penalty, which it abolished 12 years ago.
