Turkey will follow France’s example in suspending temporarily the European Convention on Human Rights following its declaration of a state of emergency, Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said on Thursday, according to broadcaster NTV.
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More than 6,000 people, around half of them military personnel, have been arrested following the coup attempt, which is said to have been organized by followers of US -based Fetullah Gulen.
Fethullah Gulen, 75, who lives in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania but has a network of supporters within Turkey, has condemned the coup attempt and denied any role in it.
More than 1,500 university deans have also been ordered to resign and the licences of 21,000 teachers working at private institutions revoked.
The government has detained over 9,000 people and fired tens of thousands of teachers, police and university professors, accusing them of having links to the USA -based cleric it blames for Turkey’s failed military coup.
Mr Erdogan said his administration was complying with Washington’s request to provide evidence of the cleric’s involvement in the coup, which USA officials have demanded before his deportation.
The Turkish president on Wednesday stressed solidarity with the United States in dealing with the extradition of Gulen, who was accused by Ankara of plotting the failed military coup.
“I condemn and reject in the strongest terms the attempted coup”, Gulen said in an interview Monday with USA TODAY and several other reporters.
“The types of arrests and roundups that you cite have not gone unnoticed by us”, he said.
Even without the emergency measures, his government has already imposed a crackdown that has included mass arrests, mass firings and the closure of hundreds of schools.
The newest sackings and calls for resignation are the latest in a movement that Prime Minister Binali Yildirim says is aimed at removing the influence of Gulen “by its roots”. Erdogan has wasted no time using the event to consolidate power across Turkey.
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Turkish police are warning the two officers may be armed and have distributed their photos in hopes they can be captured. “Tip-offs that these [people] are mostly linked with terrorist activities have been taken into consideration”, a ministry official said.
