Turkish security forces on July 16, 2016 rescued the country’s top army general in an operation in Ankara after a coup attempt, taking him to a safe location, the private CNN-Turk television reported.
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Hulusi Akar, a four-star general, retained his position as chief of staff, the presidency announced after a meeting of the Supreme Military Council, representing the commanders of NATO’s second largest army. Almost 1,700 military personnel received dishonorable discharges over their alleged role in the July 16 putsch, including around 40 percent of Turkey’s admirals and generals.
The cleric denies the charges, but Turkey insists radical measures are needed to eradicate what Erdogan describes as the “virus” of Gulen’s influence across all Turkish institutions.
The conference about the recent failed coup attempt in Turkey was organised by the Middle East Strategic Research Center in Amman. Two generals resigned as the meeting convened.
Separately, Turkey’s biggest petrochemicals company Petkim said its chief executive had resigned and the state-run news agency Anadolu said he had been detained in connection with the failed coup.
Ankara has demanded the United States extradite Fethullah Gulen, a cleric living in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania.
Erdogan also said that a total of 10,137 people have been formally arrested following the coup. “We dismissed 88 employees working at the main headquarters”.
Turkey on Friday said that its post-coup purge of the military would not weaken it in the fight against the Islamic State group, Reuters reports.
Turkey on Thursday reshuffled key military commanders sacking nearly half of its generals in the wake of the failed coup, as authorities shut down dozens of media outlets in a widening crackdown. Dozens of media organizations – a lot of them also linked or formerly linked to Gulen – were ordered shuttered late Wednesday.
Nevertheless, there is a growing anti-US mood in Turkey which is likely to harden further if Washington refuses to extradite Gulen.
Cavusoglu also tried to play down Western concerns about a tentative rapprochement between Turkey and Russian Federation following a period of strain, saying relations with Moscow were not an alternative to North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and the European Union. Saniye Calkin said supporters in neighbouring Germany were reporting similar incidents.
Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in the US state of Pennsylvania since 1999, again maintained his innocence during an interview with Italy’s Corriere della Sera newspaper, saying he had himself suffered from previous coups in Turkey. The United States has asked Turkey for evidence of his involvement, and said the USA extradition process must take its course.
Turkey’s Western allies condemned the attempted putsch, but have been rattled by the scale of the resulting crackdown.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel called on Turkey to show proportionality in its pursuit of those behind the failed coup.
“We will surely eliminate all terror organizations that target our state, our nation and the indivisible unity of our country”, Yildirim said in televised remarks at the mausoleum.
He said the post-coup attempt measures being carried out in the country’s institutions such as the parliament, National Security Council, council of ministers and others ministries were in line with the law.
Late Wednesday, the government issued a decree that removed the paramilitary police force and the coast guard from military command and placed them under the control of the Interior Ministry.
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Investigations into people’s relations with the Gulen movement, “the financial support they provided and their participation in other activities are continuing”, the minister said.
