Their radars locked onto the presidential plane but the pilots did not fire, the news agency said, citing a former military officer.
Advertisement
“This measure is in no way against democracy, the law and freedoms”, Erdogan said in a national televised address after a meeting with Cabinet ministers and security advisers.
While Erdogan is seeking to consolidate the power of his elected government after the rebellion, his crackdown could further polarize a country that once enjoyed a reputation for relative stability in the turbulent Middle East region.
The government has detained over 9,000 people and fired tens of thousands of teachers, police and university professors, accusing them of having links to the U.S.-based cleric it blames for Turkey’s failed military coup. The cleric has denied any involvement in the attempted coup.
Meanwhile, eight Turkish military officers, who fled to Greece after last week’s failed coup, were found guilty of illegal entry by a local court in the northern city of Alexandroupolis, where they landed on Saturday in a Turkish military helicopter.
The Turkish government has previously banned access to websites deemed to be carrying material critical of Turkey, including YouTube and Twitter. At the same time, electoral rule such as that of President Erdogan, whose AK Party won less than 52% of the vote in the 2014 elections, must be more inclusive and responsive to all sides of the electorate.
The state-run Anadolu news agency reports that Turkey has halted all foreign assignments for academics until further notice.
The Board of Higher Education issued the directive on Wednesday.
“Coups are not a good thing”, Trudeau said in French when asked about Turkey at an Ottawa-area event.
Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said another coup attempt is possible, but maintained it would not be easy as authorities are now “more vigilant”.
He identified “structural and individual” intelligence failures during the coup attempt and also said that work was under way to restructure the army, NTV reported.
“God willing, first we will build historically appropriate barracks at Taksim, whether they like it or not”, Erdogan told supporters gathered outside his Istanbul home overnight to show their defiance after a faction of the military attempted to overthrow him on July 15. Almost everyone, including senior USA officials, were caught by surprise.
They warn that moves to restore the death penalty to allow for the executions of the coup organizers or moves to imprison ethnic Kurdish lawmakers recently stripped of immunity will prompt the European Parliament to decide to halt the deal that rewards Turkey financially for stemming the refugee and migrant flow.
It is unclear how many soldiers participated in the attack, during which two of Erdogan’s bodyguards were killed, and it is unclear how loyal the troops were, given that they were briefed on the coup so late in proceedings.
Turkey held its first free elections in 1950 – and in a move that surprised U.S. officials no less than many coups, the government peacefully stepped down after losing.
“We will certainly support bringing the perpetrators of the coup to justice but we also caution against a reach that goes well beyond that”.
The Soviet Union is gone, of course, but the U.S. has now come to depend on Turkey, and its Incirlik airbase, in the war against the Islamic State.
Erdogan’s spokesman said on Tuesday that the government was preparing a formal request to the United States for the extradition of Gulen.
Earlier Wednesday US Secretary of State John Kerry, flanked by allied foreign ministers, said that while “we condemn this coup”, it was important that the response to it “fully respects that democracy that we are supporting”.
Advertisement
Still, Turkey’s cooperation in the fight against Islamic State is of paramount importance to Washington in the uneasy alliance so, as in its dealings with repressive governments from Cairo to Beijing, the Obama administration finds itself trying to balance US security interests against its human rights and democratic principles. Treason – such as that implied by Erdogan’s demand for Gulen’s extradition – is not listed as such an act in the countries’ treaty. AP material published by LongIsland.com, is done so with explicit permission.
