President Obama “strongly condemned” Coup attempt and urged that the investigations and prosecution of the coup’s perpetrators be conducted in ways that reinforce public confidence in democratic institutions and the rule of law.
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday chaired a crunch security meeting for the first time since the failed coup, after a widening purge that has seen around 50,000 people either detained or sacked.
Over the weekend, Turkey responded to the coup attempt by rounding up some 6,000 people, including hundreds of judges and prosecutors.
“We will use it in a fashion closer to our allies like France and others”, he told reporters as Parliament was debating President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s declaration of a three-month state of emergency on Wednesday. “How are we going to lecture when people are shooting policemen in cold blood?”
The nominee has in the past suggested a diminished role for the U.S. in North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, saying membership costs too much.
Erdogan said the new powers would allow the government to rid the military of the “virus” of subversion, blaming the coup attempt on a USA -based Muslim cleric, Fethullah Gulen.
“Europe does not have the right to criticise this decision”, Mr Erdogan said during his address, noting that some European countries had taken extraordinary measures after terrorist attacks within their own borders.
President Erdogan also says he’ll support the return of the death penalty if it’s approved by the national parliament. But since then it’s all gone to his head, and he has gotten away with increasingly bad behavior by creating an us-vs. -them divide between his loyal, more religious followers, and the more secular communities in Turkey.
In other developments, a soldier allegedly linked to the attack on a hotel where Erdogan had been vacationing during the foiled coup was arrested in southwestern Turkey, the state agency Anadolu reported Thursday.
Meanwhile, eight Turkish military officers, who fled to Greece after last week’s failed coup, were found guilty of illegal entry by a local court in the northern city of Alexandroupolis, where they landed on Saturday in a Turkish military helicopter.
The request for Gulen’s extradition is the latest move by the Turkish government to rein in dissent in the country.
“This is a state of emergency imposed not on the people, but on (the state) itself”, declared Prime Minister Binali Yildirim.
In a statement Thursday, Steinmeier said 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”.
President Erdogan told Al Jazeera the battle against Mr Gulen and his supporters is not over.
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Steinmeier said action should only be taken against those with “a provable involvement in punishable actions” and not “an alleged political attitude”.
