A spokesman for President Tayyip Erdogan said the government was preparing a formal request to the United States for the extradition of Gulen, who Turkey says orchestrated the failed military takeover on Friday in which at least 232 people were killed. “This is unacceptable in a state governed by rule of law”, Yildirim said.
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About 60,000 soldiers, police, judges, civil servants and teachers have been suspended, detained or are under investigation.
More than 290 people were killed during the coup bid, the foreign ministry said late Sunday, raising the toll from an earlier figure of 265 dead. Healing them will be one of the major worldwide challenges for the next USA president and secretary of state.
While Turks speculated on what the new measure might be, it was nearly certain to bolster an aggressive campaign against perceived enemies across a wide spectrum of Turkish society, from schools to the courts to the highest levels of government.
“Members of Fethullah Gulen’s terrorist organisation who organised the attempt of a military coup in Turkey, are in no way distinguishable from ISIS or PKK terrorists”, Cavusoglu said at an event in Ankara.
Erdogan has vowed to clean the “virus” responsible for the plot from all state institutions.
Turkey will be able to extend detention times for suspects and issue decrees without parliamentary approval under a three-month state of emergency approved Thursday by lawmakers following last week’s attempted military coup.
Western leaders have urged Erdogan and his government to respect democratic principles and act within the law in response to talk of reviving the death penalty and heavy-handed punishments over the coup.
On Tuesday, authorities shut media outlets deemed to be supportive of Gulen.
The Turkish armed forces have carried out their first airstrikes against Kurdish militants in northern Iraq since last week’s coup attempt, killing 20 fighters, state media reported Wednesday. About 8,000 police officers, including in the capital Ankara and the biggest city Istanbul, have also been removed.
“We have witnessed many coups in the past and have stopped this one altogether”.
Turkish cleric and opponent to the Erdogan regime Fethullah Gülen adresses at his residence in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania on July 18, 2016 allegations by the Turkish government about his involvement in the attempted July 15 coup.
But efforts to repress Gulen’s followers have mushroomed since the thwarted coup, said Aslandogan, who spoke outside Gulen’s home in the Pocono Mountains.
“I don’t think we have come to the end of it yet”, the president said.
Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek – who previously worked on Wall Street and is seen as one of the most investor-friendly politicians in the ruling AK Party – took to television and Twitter in an attempt to calm nervous financial markets and dispel comparisons with the past.
Turkish authorities have blamed Gulen, a one-time Erdogan ally, of being behind the attempt to topple Turkey’s government and called on the U.S. to arrest and extradite him.
This chaos could have negative effects on Turkish-U.S. relations. Relations between our countries are based on interests, not feelings.
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Turkey has repeatedly named Gulen as the instigator of its turmoil and demands his extradition from the United States. Gulen has denied being linked to the coup plotters, having been at odds with the much more secular Turkish military class for several decades.
