The million-strong rally Sunday night in Istanbul was the latest reaction to the attempted coup which sought to unseat Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who said that the people support capital punishment, meaning that he had a mandate to sign it into law. “If the parliament accepts the reintroduction of death penalty, I will accept it”, he told the crowd, adding that the death penalty exists in the U.S., Japan and “many other countries”. The European Union – which Turkey has applied to join – refuses to accept capital punishment in member states.
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The Turkish military, the most powerful after the USA within the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation bloc, is being restructured in Anraka’s sweeping efforts to clean state institutions of coup suspects and followers of the so-called Gulen movement led by Fetullah Gulen, a Turkish cleric residing in the United States.
Erdogan has strongly denied the accusation, however, and says the coup was organised by supporters of Gulen.
Erdogan was joined at the grand “Democracy and Martyrs” rally by the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahceli. He did not invite the head of the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP).
“That night, our enemies who were rubbing their hands in anticipation of Turkey’s downfall woke up the next morning to the grief that things would be more hard from now on”, said Erdogan after a minute’s silence to commemorate more than 240 people, who were killed during a failed putsch on July 15.
And then after July’s coup attempt, Moscow was supportive.
Almost 18,000 people have been detained or arrested, mostly from the military, and tens of thousands have been suspended or dismissed from jobs in the judiciary, media, education, health care, military, and local government. “There is now a new Turkey after July 15”.
Crowds formed hours before the official start of the rally on Sunday afternoon, with people braving scorching temperatures as they waited to hear speeches from Erdogan and Turkey’s top political leadership.
“If the nation makes such a decision (in support of the death penalty), I believe political parties will abide by this decision”, Erdogan said.
He added: “They say there is no death penalty in the European Union…”
Erdogan calls on the nation from a seaside resort in Marmaris to oppose the coup, speaking via a FaceTime cell phone link broadcast by CNN-Turk television.
“That night, our enemies who were rubbing their hands in anticipation of Turkey’s downfall woke up the next morning to the grief that things would be more hard from now on”, Erdogan said of the July 15 abortive coup, drawing parallels to times past when Turkey was occupied by foreign forces.
JULY 30: Erdogan says he wants to introduce constitutional changes to bring the spy agency and military chief of staff directly under his control. Gulen is also accused of a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through infiltrations into the country’s the military, police, and judiciary.
Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin will focus their talks on the Syria conflict, trade, energy and the resumption of Russian charter flights to Turkey.
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About 18,000 people have been detained or arrested.
