“We have collected many documents”.
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“About the Gulen movement. we have received requests before the coup and after from the government of Turkey about the movement that is existing in Canada, and we have asked for evidence because otherwise the Canadian justice system can not address an issue on the basis of allegations”, Dion explained.
“I am not the person who planned or led the coup”.
Secretary of State John Kerry is calling on Turkey to provide hard evidence that a USA -based cleric was behind a foiled coup attempt last weekend if it wants him extradited.
His speech was often interrupted by applause while party supporters waved Turkish flags in parliament.
In a hugely unusual move after the Emergency was announced, Mr Erdogan on Thursday read out the morning call to prayer at the mosque in his presidential complex, said pro-government Yeni Safak daily. The US Department of Justice has not confirmed that an official extradition request has been filed.
Former Turkish air force chief General Akin Ozturk, 25 other ex-generals and many soldiers have been arrested, suspected of planning last Friday’s coup, in which rebel troops used jets and tanks to try to overthrow the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. “I don’t think we have come to the end of it yet”, Erdogan commented. Ankara has called for Gulen’s extradition from the United States, where he resides in the Pennsylvania town of Saylorsburg.
“We will pull them [Gulen supporters] out by the roots like a razor blade”, he said.
Erdogan last month floated anew plans to build a replica of the barracks, site of a failed Islamist uprising in the early 20th century. “It appears that Erdogan will use the failed coup of 2016 for much the same aims, with much the same result”, Eissenstat wrote in an email to The Associated Press.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was accused of autocratic conduct before the insurrection, said the measure would counter threats to Turkish democracy.
Late on Wednesday, a court remanded in custody Ali Yazici, the President’s aide-de-camp who looked after military protocol on state occasions, on charges of supporting the coup.
Dion also said Canada is equally troubled by reports of the firings and detentions of tens of thousands of people, including members of the judiciary, public servants, teachers, academics, members of civil society and the media.
Turkey’s Western allies have urged Ankara to abide by the rule of law amid fears about a worsening state of democracy and human rights.
His spokesman, Joe Pickerill, said the Turkish government was not asking to extradite any Gulen members from Canada, as has been the case with the US, but was seeking “general information” about the group in Canada.
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While affecting regime change through a military coup is certainly not the preferred method, given how Erdogan gradually and successfully pillaged the country of all its democratic substance, a segment of the military felt it had little choice but to stage a coup to change the perilous path that Erdogan is pursuing.
