More than 15,000 education staff in Turkey have been suspended after last week’s failed coup, as a purge of state officials widens still further. The purge is rumored to continue in the Ministry of Interior. A further 492 people were removed from duty at the Religious Affairs Directorate, 257 at the prime minister’s office and 300 at the energy ministry. In academia alone, the Higher Education Board (YOK) demanded the resignation of every one of Turkey’s 1,577 university deans at both state and private universities, who all obliged.
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Tuesday’s firings come on top of roughly 9,000 people who have been detained by the government, including security personnel, judges, prosecutors, religious figures and others.
Erdogan said the movement of US -based cleric Fethullah Gulen, who he blames for masterminding the attempt to seize power, would be treated as “another separatist terrorist organisation”, drawing a parallel to the state’s fight against Kurdish militants over the past three decades.
He has denied the allegations.
“We already stated that we expect that the follow-up of this event [the attempted coup] should be along the global rule of law standards”, European Union Commissioner Johannes Hahn said. “He is of no benefit to humanity, he is of no benefit to Islam”.
Erdogan told supporters in Istanbul on Monday that “an important decision” would be announced after the national security council meeting, without specifying.
The White House said on Tuesday that an official request has been submitted by Turkey for the extradition of Fetullah Gulen, accused of masterminding the July 15 coup attempt, and that the US administration is ready to provide all necessary assistance for the coup investigation.
Ankara has long accused Gulen, once a close Erdogan ally sharing his Islamo-conservative views, of operating a parallel state in Turkey with the aim of toppling the government.
“Nobody can have a feeling of revenge”. His philosophy mixes a mystical form of Islam with staunch advocacy of democracy, education, science and interfaith dialogue.
Gulen lives in Pennsylvania but retains vast interests in Turkey ranging from media to finance to schools and wields influence in various apparatus including the judiciary and police.
Erdogan and Gulen were once allies, but had a falling out over 2013 corruption investigations in Turkey, which the Turkish leader blamed on Gulen.
Two pilots who downed a Russian jet a year ago are also among “the detained soldiers who attempted the coup”, said Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag.
Asked if the extradition request would affect wider relations with the U.S., Erdogan said “putting the two issues together is not the right thing to do”.
Under the Turkish Constitution, the emergency measures allow the government to “partially or entirely” suspend “the exercise of fundamental rights and freedoms”, so long as that doesn’t violate worldwide law obligations.
A protester salutes as he takes part in a rally in Taksim Square, Istanbul, Sunday, July 17, 2016. Washington has said that it would assess any evidence linking Gulen with the coup attempt or terrorism.
The Nationalist Movement Party, a right-wing grouping and the smallest of the three opposition parties represented in parliament, said it would back the government if it moved to restore the death penalty.
He also says the conspiracy theory that Erdogan staged the coup is “nonsensical” and compared it to conspiracy theories that the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, were carried out by the USA government against its citizens.
European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini also called on Ankara to avoid steps that would damage the constitutional order.
“Let me be very clear”, she said.
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Washington has spent years trying to cultivate the Muslim ally sitting at the crossroads of Europe and the Middle East – a country crucial to the U.S. fight against ISIS, stemming the tide of Syrian refugees and foreign fighters and tight military cooperation as a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation member state.
