Erdogan made the announcement during a live television broadcast in front of his government ministers after a almost five-hour meeting of the National Security Council.
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The sports ministry has dismissed 245 employees, state media said. “The developments unfolded in Turkey was a coup attempt be a group of plotters in the military, linked to the Fethullah Gülen Terrorist Organisation (FETO), to overthrow the democratically-elected government and the constitutional order in Turkey”, ambassador Reha Keskintepe said.
Erdogan and his deputies sought to assure the Turkish public there would be no restrictions on press freedom or personal freedom, though the emergency measure gives the government the power to impose curfews, ban news media, ban traffic, bar private gatherings, and conduct searches of private homes, among other things. “Given this imperative, Canada is concerned by the state of emergency declared by President Erdogan today”.
Gulen has strongly denied links to the coup.
“Canada supports a democratic Turkey and respects the need for thorough investigations and prosecutions against the perpetrators of the recent attempted coup”, Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion said in a statement released Wednesday night.
Under the Turkish constitution, the emergency measures allow the government to “partially or entirely” suspend “the exercise of fundamental rights and freedoms”, so long as that doesn’t violate global law obligations.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks after an emergency meeting of the government in Ankara, Turkey, late Wednesday, July 20, 2016.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is calling on Turkey to provide hard evidence that a U.S.-based cleric was behind a foiled coup attempt last weekend if it wants him extradited.
Officials on Wednesday raised the death toll from the violence surrounding the coup attempt to 240 government supporters.
On Tuesday, US President Barack Obama said he was “willing to provide appropriate assistance to Turkish authorities investigating the attempted coup”, according to his spokesman, Josh Earnest. At least 264 people are reported to have died in the clash that stretched into Saturday, but was thwarted as Mr. Erdogan’s supporters took to the streets.
In Greece, a court sentenced eight Turkish military personnel who fled there aboard a helicopter during the coup attempt to two months in prison for entering the country illegally.
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The US said it had received documents on Gulen from Turkey and was reviewing them to see if they constituted a formal extradition request, as Turkey has said it will seek.
