Turkey’s soccer agency says all of its officials on sports committees have resigned to help the investigation into the Gulen movement, which the country’s government says was behind the failed July 15 coup that left more than 200 people dead.
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COLOGNE, Germany Thousands of demonstrators from Germany’s Turkish community turned out in Cologne on Sunday to show their support for Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan at a rally that ratcheted up diplomatic tensions between Ankara and Berlin.
The new degree also confirmed his announcement that a new national military university would be established within the defence ministry, while military schools and academies would be closed down.
Gulen who has lived in the self-imposed exile in the United States for years, has denied any involvement in the failed coup of July 15-16.
More than 10,000 people have been arrested in the crackdown, most of whom are military personnel. Thousands more have been detained while almost 70,000 people have been suspended or dismissed from their jobs in the education, media, health care, military and judiciary sectors.
The package would need to be brought to parliament for a vote.
“We are here because our compatriots in Germany advocate democracy and are against the attempted military coup”, Turkey’s sport and youth minister, Akif Cagatay Kilic, who attended the rally, told reporters.
“German Constitutional Court’s decision on the anti-coup rally in Cologne is an utter backsliding in freedom of speech and democracy”, Omer Celik wrote in English on his official Twitter account.
Germany has a sizeable population of people with Turkish roots. Germany’s highest court rejected a complaint against that ban Saturday.
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Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said ahead of the demonstrations that there is “no place in Germany” for any side to “bring domestic political tensions from Turkey to us in Germany and intimidate people with other political convictions”.
