Turkey on Saturday released more than 750 soldiers who had been detained after an abortive coup, state media reported, while President Tayyip Erdogan said he would drop lawsuits against those who had insulted him, in a one-time “gesture of unity”. Mind your own business!
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He said: “Not a single person has come to give condolences either from the European Union. or from the West”.
“Those countries that do not worry about Turkey’s future are not our friends”, he said.
The indictment states that Gulen loyalists received USA training and infiltrated judicial and security institutions.
Twenty-one detained suspects Friday appeared in front of a judge in Istanbul to decide whether to remand them in custody.
In the coup’s wake, President Tayyip Erdogan hasn’t taken any chances, instituting a large-scale crackdown on any descent within the country.
They are among 42 for whom detention orders were issued Monday, while authorities are searching for those still at large, the state-run Anadolu agency said.
Among the four freed was prominent commentator Bulent Mumay.
It was not immediately clear whether Erdogan would also drop his legal action against German comedian Jan Boehmermann, who earlier this year recited a poem on television suggesting Erdogan engaged in bestiality and watched child pornography, prompting the president to file a complaint with German prosecutors that he had been insulted.
According to Amnesty International, there is “credible evidence” that around 10,000 Turkish soldiers face the severe punishments for their part of the failed military coup against president Erdogan.
Victims are being held in makeshift cells, such as stables and sports halls, and are being tortured and held in stress positions for 48 hours, the group said. On Thursday evening, Turkey announced a military reshuffle that included the dishonourable discharge of some 1,700 military servicemen.
“We are going to make our armed forces stronger and we are going to work towards making this country more secure”.
“A Confession From a U.S. General: The Coup Plotters Are Our Allies”, read the headline in the pro-Erdogan Yeni Safak newspaper, one of several media outlets that interpreted Votel’s remarks as an admission of U.S. complicity in the coup attempt.
Erdogan also said, “Even during the coup attempt process, we have not made the slightest compromise with the law”. Erdogan thinks Gulen was behind the military adventure that happened on July 15. Since the coup, Somalia has already shut two schools and a hospital believed to have links to Gulen, and other governments have received similar requests from Ankara, although not all have been willing to comply.
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“I’m concerned about what the impact is on those relationships as we continue”, he added.
