“I mean, do you have people saying that 9/11 was orchestrated by the United States?, or, can we attribute the latest incident in France to President (Francois) Hollande’s Administration?, No, you don’t have people saying that”, he said. He and his colleagues waited anxiously for news that evening, watching television and taking heart when Mr. Erdogan appeared on a Turkish private broadcaster via Facetime.
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On Thursday, Turkish state media said a further 32 judges and two military officers have been detained by authorities during the crackdown since last week’s coup.
Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek defended the move, saying he hoped the state of emergency would be short-lived. Erdogan says the death penalty may need to be brought back, citing the calls for it from crowds of supporters at rallies. He later elaborated: “It was certainly an expression of concern about this group and its presence in Canada, and an invitation for us to work with them on that”.
The targeting of education ties in with Erdogan’s belief that the US-based cleric, Fethullah Gulen, whose followers run a worldwide network of schools, seeks to infiltrate the Turkish education system and other institutions in order to bend the country to his will.
“Erdogan and the security apparatus view the Gulenists as an extreme national security threat, and they’re willing to go to extreme measures to ensure this time they’re completely purged”, Aaron Stein, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East, told The WorldPost. The state of emergency is something in our constitution, it is something in worldwide documents.
The state-of-emergency “measure is in no way against democracy, the law and freedoms”, Erdogan said with a straight face.
The Bosphorus Bridge between the Asian and European sides of Istanbul was one of the key battlegrounds in Friday night’s coup attempt, as rebel soldiers descended in tanks to block it to traffic only to be countered by protesters who descended in force.
In a press conference in Bern on Friday the Turkish ambassador in Switzerland said it was possible that the Turkish government “would launch procedures against Gulenists in Switzerland”, reported the Tages Anzeiger. European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini also warned on Thursday against using democratic institutions to undercut human rights in response to the thwarted coup.
Steinmeier said it’s important that “the rule of law, a sense of proportion and commensurability are preserved” and that it’s in Turkey’s interest to “keep the state of emergency only for the duration that is absolutely necessary and then immediately end it”. Turkish lawmakers approved a three-month state of emergency, endorsing new powers for Turkey’s P.
Almost 300 people died in the uprising, which was stopped by Erdogan’s government over the weekend.
One colleague from their Toronto office was in Turkey attending a wedding and had no idea a coup was taking place, Mr. Sen said. Erdogan has been in power since 2003, reports the BBC, and while the country has flourished economically, some have criticized Erdogan for leading the government in an increasingly religious and authoritarian direction.
“I am requesting my heroic nation, which thwarted the armed coup attempt with its foresight and courage, to continue the democracy watch on the streets until our country gets out of this hard situation for good”, Erdogan said at a news conference held at the Presidential Complex. The cleric has strong denied any knowledge of the attempted coup.
US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen is accused of masterminding the attempted coup, which crumbled early on Saturday, and the actions of the Turkish government following the declaration of the state of emergency were created to crack down on the perpetrators, Erdogan said.
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“We had no involvement in the attempted coup. They shouldn’t turn this into a long, painful process for society”.
