The Turkish government is closing down schools, firing academics and university deans, and banning worldwide travel for professors, in the latest measures in response to last week’s coup attempt against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
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Kalin added that France had also declared a state of emergency after attacks last November that killed 130 people across Paris. The Council of Europe said it had been informed of Turkey’s decision, and that the convention will still apply, but that individual exceptions will be assessed on a case-by-case basis. However, it still applies to French law, according to the council.
The government of Erdogan, accused of increasingly autocratic conduct even before the coup attempt, revoked the press credentials of 34 journalists because of alleged ties to Gulen’s movement, Turkish media reported.
Earnest said the Turkish government had filed materials in electronic form with the US government, which the Justice Department and State Department were reviewing.
Erdogan also dismissed suggestions that Turkish democracy was under any threat and that he was becoming authoritarian.
Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek said discussions were underway about creating a review mechanism for those suspended from their civil-service jobs.
Human Rights activist Ayse Panus said: “No one who is independent has access to the prisons”.
It said customers should check with their airline or travel company before they travel and “may need to turn up at the airport earlier than normal to get through the additional security checks in place”.
A total of 8,777 officers from the Turkish Ministry of Interior have so far been removed from office, according to the state-run Anadolu news agency.
Turkey had in 2002 lifted its last state of emergency, which had been imposed in provinces in the southeast for the fight against Kurdish armed groups in 1987.
The threat of prolonged instability in Turkey, which had not seen a violent military coup for more than three decades, has shaken investors’ confidence.
In Greece, a court sentenced eight Turkish military personnel who fled there aboard a helicopter during the coup attempt to two months in prison for entering the country illegally.
Two members of Turkey’s constitutional court were formally arrested on Wednesday along with 111 other officials from the judiciary, including 111 other judges, prosecutors and high court members as the number of those involved in the failed Gülenist coup grow each day.
Turkey has demanded their return to stand trial for alleged participation in the coup attempt.
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German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier says Turkey’s state of emergency should only last as long as it’s “absolutely necessary”.
