Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek said the state of emergency will be used to act swiftly against the perpetrators of the coup. The Turkish military has been regularly hitting suspected PKK hideouts and position in Iraq since previous year, but Wednesday’s strikes were the first since the July 15 botched takeover attempt by a faction within the armed forces, in which several F-16 pilots were involved.
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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 USA, but was seeking “general information” about the group in Canada.
Turkey’s National Security Council – the highest advisory body on security issues – was holding an extraordinary meeting followed by a previously unscheduled cabinet meeting on Wednesday, after which Erdogan said an “important decision” would be announced.
On Tuesday, authorities shut media outlets deemed to be supportive of Gulen.
Hundreds more have been suspended from the Prime Minister’s office and government bodies dealing with religious affairs, family and social policy and development have been suspended.
More than 6,000 soldiers and around 1,500 others have been detained since the abortive coup. Thousands again responded on late Saturday to Erdogan’s call to pour into the streets and celebrate the “victory of democracy”, with mass rallies of flag-waving Turks in cities including Ankara, Istanbul and Izmir.
The firings come on top of the roughly 9,000 people who have been detained by the government, including security personnel, judges, prosecutors, religious figures and others.
Now he seems bent on sweeping away all obstacles before him, using the coup threat as a weapon with which to cow his opponents, all the while claiming to be protecting “the people’s rights and freedoms” from subversion.
The agency said the schools are linked to Gulen, a former ally of Erdogan who lives in Pennsylvania and has denied accusations that he engineered the coup attempt.
The Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), a right-wing grouping and the smallest of the three opposition parties represented in parliament, said it would back the government if it decides to restore the death penalty. Erdogan has long accused Gulen of running a “parallel state” in Turkey, and called on Obama to extradite the reclusive preacher from the United States to face justice. Obama pointedly criticized Erdogan in April, after he visited the White House, saying that his recent crackdown on journalists “could lead Turkey down a path that would be very troubling”.
It has raised deep concerns about the stability of the strategic North Atlantic Treaty Organisation partner, which has a key air base used in the US-led fight against the Islamic State group that has a large nuclear weapons stockpile. Relations between our countries are based on interests, not feelings. “We are strategic partners”, Erdogan said.
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Any extradition request would face legal and political hurdles in the United States. Even if approved by a judge, it would still have to go to Secretary of State John Kerry, who can consider non-legal factors, such as humanitarian arguments.
