Turkey’s deputy prime minister says his country will suspend the European Human Rights Convention as it prepares to implement the country’s new state of emergency after a failed coup.
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Erdogan’s government said it has fired almost 22,000 education ministry workers, mostly teachers, taken steps to revoke the licenses of 21,000 other teachers at private schools and sacked or detained half a dozen university presidents in a campaign to root out alleged supporters of a US-based Muslim cleric blamed for the botched insurrection on Friday.
The Guardian reports the Erdogan government has now fired more than 15,000 employees at the education ministry, 257 officials at the prime minister’s office, and 492 clerics at the directorate for religious affairs, while demanding the resignation of 1,500 university deans. A day after the failed coup, Erdogan dismissed 2,745 judges and prosecutors. But he also suggested that the USA government shouldn’t require the facts before extraditing him.
Turkey’s Western allies have expressed solidarity with the government over the coup attempt but have also voiced alarm at the scale and swiftness of the response, urging it to adhere to democratic values.
“It’s not clear how many people within the military organised themselves [for the coup], but they are a minority”, he told Al Jazeera television in an interview last night.
His spokesman, Joe Pickerill, said the Turkish government was not asking to extradite any Gulen members from Canada, as has been the case with the US, but was seeking “general information” about the group in Canada.
Erdogan said Sunday he is receptive to reinstating the country’s death penalty in the aftermath of the coup attempt.
Erdogan said the state of emergency, which would last three months, would allow his government to take swift and effective measures against supporters of the coup and was allowed under the constitution.
On Tuesday it has released almost 300,000 emails from the ruling AK Party dating from 2010 to July 6, 2016. A court remanded 26 generals and admirals in custody on Monday, Turkish media said.
Gulen has lived in self-imposed exile in the United States since 1999 and has denied any involvement in the putsch.
People draped in Turkish flags chant slogans against Israel and America, the latter because of a growing perception here that Washington is sheltering the man responsible for the failed insurrection – cleric Fethullah Gulen.
The Turkish army said Tuesday that the vast majority of its members had no links with Friday’s attempted coup and warned that the putschists would face severe punishment. “But there’s also a large segment of the population that’s kind of proud they faced down a coup”, Peter says.
At least 208 people, including members of the security forces and civilians, were martyred in Istanbul and Ankara and almost 1,500 others wounded as they protested against the coup.
Turkey has launched a massive post-coup purge, detaining thousands of people.
Although the special measure vastly increases state security powers, Erdogan vowed there would be “no compromise on democracy”.
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Possibly anticipating investor jitters, Erdogan criticised Standard & Poor’s for downgrading its credit rating for Turkey deeper into “junk” status and said the country would remain financially disciplined.
