Erdogan blames a network of followers of a US-based cleric, Fethullah Gulen, for Friday night’s attempted coup, in which more than 230 people were killed as soldiers commandeered fighter jets, military helicopters and tanks to try to overthrow the government.
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The move will allow the Turkish cabinet to rule by decree, bypassing parliament.
“The state of emergency in Turkey won’t include restrictions on movement, gatherings and free press etc”. Police stop and search powers could be extended.
“Did they not detain people en masse?” Lawmakers can sanction a state of emergency for a period of up to six months.
Gulen who lives in self imposed exile in Pennsylvania, admits having a large following in Turkey, but which Erdogan says amounts to a parallel state-cum-terrorist organisation within the country.
But rights groups and Western leaders have raised concerns that they will be used to achieve the exact opposite – a rollback on democratic freedoms.
“The goal of the state of emergency is to most effectively and swiftly take steps necessary to eliminate the threat to democracy in our country”, he said, as cited by Anadolu Agency.
The government is presenting the measures as an effort to confront a wide-ranging conspiracy led by a US -based Turkish cleric, Fethullah Gulen, a former ally of Mr. Erdogan whom Turkey accuses of running a terrorist organization. He opposed the coup but has mixed feelings about the aftermath.
The move, Bozdag said on Thursday, was made “to get rid of the Fethullah Terror organization and its tentacles”.
The military has long seen itself as the guardian of secularism in this mostly Muslim country and has staged a series of coups in past decades, but its power has been gradually diminished. Erdogan’s government was already under fire from rights groups for suppressing media criticism and interfering with courts.
In the days since the coup failed, Turkey has intensified a sweeping crackdown on the media, the military, the courts and the education system following an attempted coup, targeting tens of thousands of teachers and other state employees believed to have links with Gulen for dismissal. “Above all; it is all legal and within our constitution”.
Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said the state of emergency was aimed at averting a possible second military coup.
Gulen released a statement about the extradition request that said Erdogan “will go to any length necessary to solidify his power and persecute his critics”.
Earnest said the Turkish government had filed materials in electronic form with the US government, which the Justice Department and State Department were reviewing.
More than 50,000 people in total have been rounded up, sacked, or arrested in the wake of the coup.
Michael Rubin, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and a former US Defense Department official, says the West is not going to be trapped by this stated support for democracy if the government cracks down. For hours, while the drama unfolded in Ankara and Istanbul, Jerusalem remained silent, awaiting developments.
For others, the continuing street rallies now make them uncomfortable.
More than 250 people were killed before the rebellion was put down. “We should be mourning”, said Mr Beker. As a secularist he finds some of the religious chanting of the protesters “disturbing”.
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“The United States follows the rule of law”.
