So far, over 6,000 soldiers involved in the coup attempt have been detained by security forces while about 2,700 judges and prosecutors have also been dismissed from service. Thousands of police and military personnel have been taken off the job. Nearly 30 military generals and admirals were being questioned about their suspected role in the coup.
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They include former air force commander General Akin Ozturk, who has been described as the ringleader of the foiled uprising. He has insisted that he tried to quell the challenge to the elected government.
Turkey’s interior ministry fired 9,000 people across the country, including police and 30 governors, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
Turkey has not executed anybody since 1984 and officially abolished the death penalty in 2004, following European Union pressure and admission criteria. Almost 300 people lost their lives in a night of chaos and confusion.
Images and video footage from Saturday morning showed a mass surrender as soldiers abandoned their tank on Istanbul’s Bosphorus Bridge with hands raised.
Islamic cleric Fathullah Gülen is accused by President Recep Erdoğan of planning the coup to overthrow the Turkish government. He has locked up his rivals and seized control of an opposition newspaper.
The botched coup was only put down when Erdogan loyalists responded to his calls to take to the streets to challenge the putschists.
Though government officials offered reassurances that life has returned to normal, warplanes patrolled Turkey’s skies overnight in a sign that authorities feared that the threat was not yet over.
“We firmly urge the government of Turkey to maintain calm and stability throughout the country”, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on July 18.
North Atlantic Treaty Organisation chief Jens Stoltenberg later said he had spoken to Erdogan to say that “valued” ally Turkey must stick to the same standards as the other 27 members.
“This virus, like a cancer, spread to all the state institutions”, Erdogan said at the funeral for one of the victims, promising to purge the state of traitors.
Erdogan has previously blamed Gulen for the attempted coup – a claim which Gulen has denied.
Gulen denies the charge, but Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called on the U.S. to extradite him – arguing that Turkey has extradited plenty of terror suspects in the opposite direction.
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Rather than toppling Turkey’s strongman president, a failed military coup that left more than 250 dead appears to have bolstered Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s immediate grip on power and boosted his popularity.
