Turkey has suspended 15,000 state education employees following the weekend’s attempted coup, state-run media has said, according to The Independent.
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Turkey’s government says it is removing from government institutions anyone it considers loyal to Fethullah Gulen, an elderly Turkish cleric who has been living in eastern Pennsylvania since the late 1990s. 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.
Up to 300 people were killed in the coup attempt. “So this is sufficient ground”.
Later, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said that Turkey had submitted materials related to Gulen and the administration was reviewing whether they amounted to a formal extradition request.
The extradition demand is likely to strain U.S.-Turkey ties as the Obama administration refers the matter to the Justice Department, which will determine whether the Turkish government has established probable cause that a crime was committed.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday only a minority of the armed forces were involved in last Friday’s failed military coup but he said it was not clear exactly how many people had taken part.
A former ally-turned critic of Erdogan, he suggested the president staged it as an excuse for a crackdown after a steady accumulation of control during 14 years in power.
What is the Turkish government saying about all these arrests and dismissals?
The announcement came shortly after a report that the High Education Board had ordered the resignation of 1,577 deans at all universities across Turkey. Firings have occurred in the prime minister’s office and Religious Affairs Ministry, says the Anadolu agency. Dozens of others were still being questioned.
But Dorothee Schmid, a specialist on Turkey at the French Institute for Foreign Relations (IFRI) Schmid said all would now not be plain sailing for Erdogan who was leading a deeply polarised country where confidence in the political process has sunk.
The two North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies cooperate in the U.S.-led war against the Islamic State group, with American military planes flying missions from Turkey’s Incirlik air base into neighboring Iraq and Syria.
Officials on Wednesday raised the death toll from the violence surrounding the coup attempt to 240 government supporters. The explosions damaged the roof of one of the buildings and tore down its front wall, exposing dust-covered bunk beds.
The military said in a statement that it was given information on the coup plot by the National Intelligence Organization at 4 p.m. local time and informed relevant authorities.
Amid the round-up of alleged coup plotters, the shadow of the death penalty hovers, with Erdogan refusing to rule out the return of capital punishment despite warnings from Brussels that this would end Turkey’s European Union ambitions.
“We support the democratic government”.
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Turkey’s deputy prime minister said dossiers containing details of Gulen’s activities have been sent to the US.
