Following the coup attempt and the subsequent purges, Erdogan is now focusing upon foreign affairs.
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Erdogan has attracted strong criticism from the USA and other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies for a sweeping crackdown on tens of thousands of alleged opponents in the military, civil service, business and academia following the failed coup, while Turkey has heaped praise on Russian Federation for its support since the crisis erupted on July 15.
The group cites interviews with detainees’ lawyers, doctors and a person who was on duty at one of the centers in Ankara.
Akar said he refused to speak to Gulen or read out the manifesto the coup plotters had drafted declaring their takeover of the country.
More than 10,000 people have been detained, Amnesty International said.
“Accusations of torture and ill-treatment are unfounded”, he said, blaming them on supporters of cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused of orchestrating the upheaval. Tens of thousands of others have been suspended from their jobs.
Gulen, who lives in the United States and runs a global network of schools and foundations, has repeatedly denied any knowledge of the coup attempt. Thousands have been detained for suspected links to the coup.
Last week, Turkey declared a three-month state of emergency, allowing the president and the government to bypass parliament when drafting new laws and to restrict or suspend rights and freedoms.
“We are here to improve our relations and to bring them to an even higher level than before November 24”, Simsek said at the start of a meeting on Tuesday with his Russian counterpart Arkady Dvorkovich.
In the latest wave of detentions, police raided the home of Sahin Alpay around 6 a.m. (11:00 p.m. EDT) and held him after a 2-1/2 hour search of the property in a central Istanbul district, the Dogan news agency reported.
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“The culprits of the putsch should be tried lawfully”, he said, warning that torture and ill-treatment would put the state on par with the putschists.
