“The President spoke by phone today with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan”, a White House statement said Tuesday.
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Around a third of Turkey’s roughly 360 serving generals have been detained since the coup attempt, a second senior official said, with 99 charged pending trial and 14 more being held.
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.
Turkey has repeatedly named Gulen as the instigator of its turmoil and demands his extradition from the United States.
On Saturday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry indicated that the Obama administration would consider such a request, adding that Turkey would have to prove the wrongdoing of Gulen, who left his native Turkey in 1999. Kerry said he had not yet seen the documents and other United States officials have not yet said whether they constitute a formal extradition request.
The coup had failed and Erdogan was ready with his mandate to speed up his quest for unlimited power and purge the military, “purify” the government ministries, and uproot some opposition groups (such as the Gulen movement).
Footage recorded from various surveillance cameras showed MIT’s front and back entrance gates being blown up during Friday’s military coup attempt.
The crackdown was escalated Tuesday, as the government announced the firing of almost 24,000 teachers and Interior Ministry employees and demanded the resignations of another 1,577 university deans as well as hundreds of other government employees.
Mr Erdogan said a new structure in the armed forces would be put in place in a short time, and that the military must have learned serious lessons from the coup attempt.
“We would be disappointed if our (American) friends told us to present proof even though members of the assassin organisation are trying to destroy an elected government under the directions of that person”, Yildirim said.
Here are some more startling numbers, according to the BBC: 6,000 military personnel arrested, including more than two dozen generals awaiting trial; 9,000 police officers fired; nearly 3,000 judges suspended; and more than 250 members of Prime Minister Binali Yildirim’s staff removed from their posts, as have 1,500 Finance Ministry employees.
Erdogan’s suggestion that the death penalty could be reinstated has sent shockwaves through Europe, with the European Union warning such a move would be the nail in the coffin of Turkey’s already embattled bid to join the bloc.
Western countries said they supported Erdogan’s government but Ankara should abide by the rule of law.
Erdogan said Sunday he is receptive to reinstating the country’s death penalty in the aftermath of the coup attempt.But EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini warned that such a step may end Turkey’s EU membership hopes.
He answered supporters’ chants of “We want the death penalty” by saying: “We hear your request”.
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Turkkan reportedly said he “started to regret it after I saw the bombs explode and the civilians being harmed”.
