In other developments news, a soldier allegedly linked to the attack on a hotel where Erdogan had been vacationing during the foiled coup was arrested in southwestern Turkey, the state agency Anadolu reported Thursday.
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The failed coup attempt, which began last Friday, was crushed the next day; at least 290 people, including more than 100 “coup plotters”, were killed, authorities said.
Ankara says the coup was masterminded by US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen and the massive crackdown appears to be targeting individuals suspected of any connection to Erdogan’s ally-turned-foe.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during a summit in Istanbul on May 23, 2016.
Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in the United States since 1999, denies any involvement in the putsch. Gulen encouraged his many followers to support Erdogan, who in turn helped raise the profile of Gulen, who runs a vast network of Islamic schools worldwide….
Germany has the largest ethnic Turkish community outside Turkey with some three million members.
“A deep split is emerging in Turkish society”, Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann told the Berliner Zeitung newspaper.
Erdogan told CNN this week his life had been in grave danger.
Turkey’s Western allies have expressed solidarity with the government over the coup attempt but have also voiced alarm at the scale and swiftness of the response, which includes a purge in universities and travel ban on academics.
The government has also revoked the press credentials of 34 journalists because of alleged ties to Gulen’s movement, Turkish media reported.
Later, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said that Turkey had submitted materials related to Gulen and the administration was reviewing them to determine whether they amounted to a formal extradition request.
Even the sports ministry has dismissed 245 employees, state media said.
Turkey has demanded their return to stand trial for alleged participation in the coup attempt. He said the July 15 victory over the plotters was “epic” and that no coup in the history of Turkey had been as brutal as the one that this government survived.
Before the vote, Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said that once emergency measures are invoked, the country would suspend its participation in the European Convention of Human Rights, an worldwide treaty meant to protect human rights and freedoms. The government says a U.S.-based Muslim cleric was behind the coup.
Addressing hundreds of supporters outside his Istanbul residence in the early hours of Tuesday, Mr Erdogan responded to calls for the death penalty with the simple statement: “You can not put aside the people’s demands”.
The state of emergency was needed “in order to remove swiftly all the elements of the terrorist organization involved in the coup attempt”, Erdogan said at the presidential palace in Ankara. Speaking alongside the leader of the main secularist opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), he said the country must avoid the risk that some people try to exploit the current situation. “We need to have evidence which we can then make a judgment about”.
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim nevertheless warned Turks against exacting “revenge” on backers of the attempted overthrow, after disturbing pictures emerged of rough treatment meted out to suspects.
Tanks were also on the streets of Istanbul and Ankara, announcing that the army had seized control of the country.
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Some 1,500 finance ministry officials have also been removed from their posts. The total fired or suspended is around 50,000 people.
