Around a third of Turkey’s roughly 360 serving generals have been detained since the coup attempt, a senior official said, with 99 charged pending trial and 14 more being held.
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U S President Barack Obama has dismissed Turkey’s persistent speculation that Washington was behind the failed military coup there, saying that the rumors threatened the safety of Americans in the country and could damage bilateral ties.
Citizens have to defend themselves against the “most insidious and vile coup attempt in the history of the Turkish people”, Erdogan said.
Erdogan also said there was no obstacle to extending the state of emergency beyond the initial three months – a comment likely to spark concern among critics already fearful about the pace of his crackdown.
Turkey detained 283 members of the presidential guard of Recep Tayyip Erdogan after last week’s attempted coup, a government official said Friday. We said so earlier than just about anybody and have been consistent throughout that the Turkish people deserve a government that was democratically elected, said the US President.
Turkey has also said that 1,043 private schools and 1,229 associations and foundations will be shut down under the state of emergency.
The putsch, followed by a purge of the people has caused a great level of disturbance to the nation of Turkey, a member of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and an ally to the rest of the countries who are fighting against the rise of the Islamic state.
Meanwhile, the US military said that the power supply to the Incirlik air base in Turkey, which was cut off following the coup, had been reinstated.
Sources in Turkey’s Interior Ministry said on Monday that a total of 8,777 Interior Ministry officials had been suspended since July 16.
That, and Turkey’s blaming of cleric Fethullah Gulen, exiled to the U.S., as being behind the plot, are likely the source of a lot of the speculation.
Noting that Gulen had “big presence in Pakistan”, Girgin said Turkey was in close contact with Pakistani authorities.
During a Washington press conference Friday, Turkish Ambassador to the U.S., Serdar Kılıç, said his country is working with the U.S. Justice Department to finalize his nation’s request for Gulen’s extradition “in a way commensurate with the time-tested alliance relationship between the two countries”.
“When the world looks at how bad the United States is and then we go and talk about civil liberties, I don’t think we’re a very good messenger”, Trump said in an interview with the New York Times published Thursday. Erdogan has said the state of emergency will counter threats to democracy.
Since the botched attempt to overthrow Erdogan, Turkey’s parliament has approved a three-month state of emergency, giving the president sweeping new powers.
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The Turkish government has imposed a crackdown, including mass arrests and firings, and the closing of hundreds of schools allegedly tied to Gulen.
