In Turkey, almost 70,000 people have been suspended from their jobs on suspicion of being involved in the movement. About 18,000 people have been detained or arrested, a lot of them from the military, while authorities have said the purge of those suspected of links to Gulen in the military will continue.
Advertisement
The Erdogan regime considers the preacher to be the mastermind of last month’s botched coup in Turkey.
Gulen, who has lived in exile since 1999 after charges were laid against him by Turkey’s then secular authorities, has vehemently denied from his Pennsylvania compound all accusations of involvement in the coup.
In a statement responding to Erdogan, Amnesty said it had “repeatedly condemned the appalling violence committed by those behind the 15 July failed coup attempt”.
The chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joseph Dunford, visited the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation military base in Incirlik, some 500 kilometres south of Ankara on Tuesday, as part of a two-day visit seen as an attempt to ease tensions between the two countries.
At a small protest held near the U.S. Embassy in Ankara, demonstrators held up placards reading “Dunford go home, send us Fethullhah”, and “Get out coup plotter Dunford”. The US has said it would weigh the merits of a proper extradition request.
Erdogan said earlier that the criminal investigation involving his son could jeopardize the Turkish-Italian relations.
On Tuesday, the Turkish Football federation said it had sacked 94 people, including a number of referees.
“If my son came back to Italy at this moment, he could be arrested”, Erdogan said in an interview with the state broadcaster.
Turkish foreign ministry sources said the envoy was summoned to “strongly express our disappointment” over the ban on a popularly elected leader from addressing the rally and called the German approach “unacceptable”.
Turkey’s Prime Minister has said ties between Ankara and Washington would be affected if the USA did not hand over Gulen who has resided in the state of Pennsylvania since 1999.
Tufenkci said the full picture should be seen in a medium-term context even if some investors stayed away in the short-term, adding that the rebels had made Turkey look like a third world country.
Advertisement
On August 2, warrants were issued for 98 doctors at the prestigious GATA military hospital in Ankara and Turkish soccer officials fired 94 referees and other officials over alleged ties to Gulen. While the president said Turkey’s free market economy won’t be interrupted by a state of emergency, much of his focus in the televised national address was on the political aftermath of the coup – including criticism of the West’s response. Meanwhile, a group of servicemen announced about transition of power to them.
