Turkish lawmakers are expected Thursday to approve President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s request for a three-month state of emergency in the wake of last week’s failed coup.
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German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Turkey’s state of emergency should only last as long as it’s “absolutely necessary”.
Emergency rule, which was in force in parts of Turkey’s largely Kurdish southeast until last decade, allows the government to issue decrees with the force of law and suspend rights, according to the constitution.
European Union leaders have said that Turkey’s negotiations to join their bloc will be terminated if it brings back the death penalty, and have criticized the wave of arrests that followed the failed putsch.
“The aim of the declaration of the state of emergency is to be able to take fast and effective steps against this threat against democracy, the rule of law and rights and freedoms of our citizens”, Erdoğan said at a press conference on Wednesday night.
“We’re committed to market economy”, Mehmet Simsek said on Twitter following the announcement of the state of emergency. The government also suspended 15,200 state education employees.
Members of Turkey armed forces are escorted by police for their suspected involvement in Friday’s attempted coup, at the court house in Mugla, Turkey, July 17, 2016.
“Erdogan wants to revive the Ottoman Empire … so internally he needs a very tight grip on the country, on the state, on the branches of government”, Botros told RT. They said they were tasked with transporting wounded people when their choppers came under fire from police.
The General Staff said in a statement it alerted the relevant authorities, adding that the majority of memberx s had nothing to do with the coup.
Mr Erdogan will then chair a meeting of the cabinet, also at the palace, whose immediate vicinity was bombed during the botched coup bid. The large-scale purge of state institutions has affected judiciary officials, civil servants, law enforcement and education workers.
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“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.
