The United States will provide appropriate help to the Turkish government following Friday’s failed coup attempt against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, President Obama told Erdogan in a call Tuesday.
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Yesterday, the government suspended 15,200 state education employees allegedly linked to US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen who Ankara blames for the coup.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused USA -based cleric Fethullah Gulen, whose followers run a worldwide network of schools, of fomenting the insurrection, which was quashed by security forces and protesters loyal to the government.
Erdogan on Wednesday told al-Jazeera some of those who have been detained after the attempted coup have started confessing and providing what the Turkish leader said is information that links the coup attempt to Gulen.
The country’s higher education board meanwhile demanded that 1,577 deans at universities resign, state-run news agency Anadolu reported on Tuesday.
The lira weakened to beyond 3 to the US dollar after state broadcaster TRT said all university deans had been ordered to resign, recalling the sorts of broad purges seen in the wake of successful military coups of the past.
Authorities have rounded up close to 9,000 people – including 115 generals, 350 officers and some 4,800 other military personnel – for alleged involvement in the coup attempt.
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim did not say whether the dossier amounted to an official extradition request, but pledged to supply U.S. authorities with evidence linking the coup attempt to Gulen, who has been exiled in Pennsylvania since the late 1990s.
Erdogan said regional governors would receive increased powers under the state of emergency, adding that the armed forces would work in line with government orders. Turkey is seeking Gulen’s extradition.
Earnest added that if the USA does receive a request, that request “will be carefully considered within that context of the extradition treaty that has been on the books for 30 years now”.
Turkish authorities have launched an operation to find 21 commandos who are suspected of the attack on Erdogan’s hotel.
Despite living in self-imposed exile in the US since 1999, Gulen has maintained a level of influence in Turkey second only to that of Erdogan.
But the president returned to the capital last night for the first time since the coup attempt, a Turkish official said.
The violence surrounding the Friday night coup attempt claimed the lives of 208 government supporters and 24 coup plotters, according to the government. “We can say that by not accepting the offer, he paved the way for its failure”, the agency quoted Turkkan as saying.
“These people are not human”, she said of the coup-plotters. “I want to ask our friends in the US, did you ask for proof when you demanded the terrorists after the Twin Towers fell on September 11?”
Turkey’s Foreign Minister said criticism of the government’s response amounted to backing for the bid to overthrow it.
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There are already longstanding tensions between Turkish nationalists and Kurds who support the Kurdistan Peoples Party (PKK) and Kurdish separatist movements from Turkey, both of which live in great numbers in Europe.
