Gulen, who lives in exile in the USA state of Pennsylvania, has denied any involvement.
Advertisement
The actual level of support Gulen enjoys in Turkey is unclear, but at least 15,000 Education Ministry employees have been rounded up, suspended or fired and another 21,000 teachers in the private sector had their licenses cancelled by the ministry, effectively leaving them unable to work. A further 492 people were removed from duty at the Religious Affairs Directorate, 257 at the prime minister’s office and 300 at the energy ministry.
The crackdown was escalated Tuesday, as the government announced the firing of almost 24,000 teachers and Interior Ministry employees and demanded the resignations of another 1,577 university deans as well as hundreds of other government employees.
The soldiers involved in the President’s apprehension were informed of the details of the coup as they were being airlifted to a hotel in a resort town where Erdogan and his family were vacationing during Friday’s deadly attempted takeover.
About 60,000 soldiers, police, judges, civil servants and teachers have been suspended, detained or are under investigation.
Mr Kerry said that he made clear in several phone calls with Turkey’s foreign minister in recent days that mere allegations of wrongdoing against Fethullah Gulen would not meet United States extradition requirements. “People should not believe those fake statements”, he said on Kerry’s Turkey NASO dismissal threat.
Network of followers Mr Erdogan blames a network of followers of the US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen for Friday night’s attempted coup, as soldiers commandeered fighter jets, military helicopters and tanks.
“I urge the US government to reject any effort to abuse the extradition process to carry out political vendettas”, he said in a statement.
Earlier the Turkish leader lashed out at critics of the sweeping purge, telling France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault – who had warned Erdogan not to use the failed coup as a “blank cheque” to silence his opponents – to “mind his own business”.
Under the U.S. -Turkey extradition agreement, Washington can only extradite a person if he or she has committed an “extraditable act”. The Turkish official assured Carter that Turkey remains a determined and committed partner and ally in the fight against terrorism. Huseyin Ozev, an education union leader in Istanbul, said state education workers who were reported to have been fired had not received notices and that employees were “waiting at home or on vacation, anxiously”, to see if they had lost their jobs.
The government is trying to root out and punish supporters of Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish scholar living in exile in Pennsylvania and leading the Hizmet movement, which is based on moderate Sunni Islam, according to CNN.
Turkey has demanded Gulen’s extradition from the United States. His movement operates dozens of charter schools in the U.S.
Gulen continues to exert considerable influence in Turkey, with supporters in the media, police and judiciary. Erdogan has since cracked down on his former allies, including by seizing businesses tied to Gulen.
“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 authorisation that will make this decision, is not just me”, he said. Do you have capital punishment in the US, Russia, China and in many other countries?
Advertisement
Erdogan also reiterated Turkey would consider reinstating the death penalty after the failed attempt to overthrow his government.
