A peeved Erdogan said that he was “saddened” by such criticism. “There is no need to prove the coup attempt. So this is sufficient ground”.
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After President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke to his USA counterpart over the phone, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the United States had offered its assistance but urged Turkey to show restraint.
The Turkish government has blamed Friday’s failed coup on Fethullah Gulen, a Muslim cleric living in Pennsylvania in self-exile.
The Education Ministry is one of the latest targets of a crackdown that has extended throughout the Turkish government.
The United States should support efforts to enhance the democratic values in Turkey.
Opposition parties which stood with the authorities against the coup expressed concern that the state of emergency could concentrate too much power in the hands of Erdogan, whose rivals have long accused him of suppressing free speech.
Erdogan, addressing the nation via a FaceTime call to the CNN Turk television channel, urged people to take to the streets and resist the coup, which they did in their thousands.
It then demanded the resignation of the deans of all 1,577 universities in the country.
Tuesday’s dismissals touched every aspect of government life.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that last week’s failed coup tried unsuccessfully to make a minority dominate the country’s majority, Anadolu reported.
Amidst civilian personnel, the purge includes 8,777 interior ministry workers, 3,000 judges, 1,500 staff in the finance ministry, 257 working in the prime minister’s office.
The purge has gutted the leadership in the country’s security forces, with at least 118 generals and admirals detained, stripping the general-rank command of the Turkish military by a third, according to Turkish state broadcaster TRT. Dozens of others were still being questioned.
Lawyers at the US State and Justice departments would review the request to determine whether the alleged offence falls within the scope of the countries’ extradition treaty and is a crime in both countries.
“We need unity… and brotherhood now”, he said. Several European officials have said such a move would be the end of Turkey’s attempts to join.
He did not specify what action the government would take, but earlier on Tuesday, President Erdogan said he is ready to reinstate the death penalty. Anger at the coup plotters is shared by all the major Turkish political parties, including the Kurdish party known as the HDP. Gulen has denied all involvement.
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“This is probably the weakest the Turkish military has ever been in the history of the Turkish republic”, Dr. Aykan Erdemir, a member of the Turkish parliament from 2011 to 2015 and a senior fellow at the Washington- based Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told the Business Insider website. “I want to ask our friends in the USA, did you ask for proof when you demanded the terrorists after the Twin Towers fell on September 11?”
