He added that it would be up to parliament to decide.
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“The force of the tanks could not beat the force of the people”, he said. The country’s top military brass did not support the coup.
Amid the round-up of alleged coup plotters, the shadow of the death penalty hovers, with Erdogan refusing to rule out the return of capital punishment despite warnings from Brussels that this would end Turkey’s European Union ambitions.
Speaking of calls by some Turks for the execution of coup plotters, the President responded by saying, “Why should I keep them and feed them in prisons for years to come?”
Gulan has suggested that Erdogan staged the coup as an excuse for a crackdown. He said that about 10,000 supporters were at the airport to greet him when his plane landed.
The US said on Tuesday, however, that it had not received an extradition request from Turkey for Gulen.
Anadolu reported that 257 people working at the office of the prime minister have been dismissed and their identification seized because of suspicions of possible involvement in the coup attempt. His voice cracked and he wept as he spoke with reporters after a Cabinet meeting and repeated a question his grandson had put to him: “Why are they killing people?”
Erdogan has blamed the coup attempt on Gulen, his arch-enemy, who lives in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania.
Nearly 50,000 people have been removed from positions in the military, police and other government departments since the failed putsch, which was launched Friday but quickly collapsed after Mr. Erdogan called his supporters into the streets.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made a series of televised appearances overnight in which he disclosed dramatic details of his survival on the night of a failed coup and raised the specter of reintroducing the death penalty to punish conspirators. “In addition to the army, more than 8,000 people in the interior ministry have been sent to passive duty and are being detained as we speak”, he said.
Erdogan’s decision to allow the resumption of flights at the Incirlik Air Base, which hosts a number of USA intelligence facilities and plays a strategic role in the fight against Islamic State militants, has averted an immediate confrontation between the two allied countries.
Secretary of State John Kerry has said the US will consider any extradition request for Gulen from Turkey, but that Washington’s decision to extradite will be based on the strength of the evidence. Washington has said it will only consider an extradition request if clear evidence is provided.
Yildirim said the normal USA legal processes would not be good enough.
“Some news reports, and, unfortunately, some public figures, have speculated that the United States in some way supported the coup attempt”, Bass said in a statement.
The main CHP opposition said the response to the coup attempt must be conducted within the rule of law and that the plotters should face trial.
“The rule of law reigns supreme here”.
In an intriguing twist, a Turkish official said two Turkish pilots who played a role in the downing of a Russian plane in November that led to a crisis in ties between Moscow and Ankara are in custody over the failed coup.
Erdogan’s suggestion that the death penalty could be reinstated has sent shudders through Europe and sparked warnings such a move would be the nail in the coffin of its already embattled bid to join the EU. That message was echoed by Germany, the EU’s biggest state.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman denounced “revolting scenes of caprice and revenge against soldiers on the streets” after disturbing pictures emerged of the treatment of some detained suspects.
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Scenes of fervent rallying could also be seen in Ankara, Izmir and Taksim on Monday night as well.
