Erdogan has also strongly criticized U.S. military officials for comments he said implied that the detention of Turkish military officers as part of the coup investigation could affect the country’s fight against the Islamic State group.
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Turkey’s state-run news agency says authorities have captured two more people suspected of being part of a group of soldiers who raided President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s seaside hotel during the failed coup. Many waved Turkish flags.
Gulen denies involvement. On Friday, Erdogan accused the USA of protecting Gulen.
The US is reported to believe there is not enough evidence linking him to the coup plot to grant Turkey’s request, but no decision has yet been made. Erdogan also announced that 1,389 military personnel, including his chief military adviser and the defense minister’s chief secretary, have been discharged.
In an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu urged the U.S.to extradite Fethullah Gulen, the cleric accused by Erdogan of being the mastermind of the failed coup. The slogan of the demonstration was “Yes to democracy”. Germany’s highest court rejected a complaint against that ban Saturday night.
Ibrahim Kalin said Sunday Turkey was “curious what the real reason is behind why German local courts and the Constitutional Court have prevented Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s message, and hope German officials will provide a satisfactory explanation”. Several counter-demonstrations were also planned, including one called “Stop Erdogan”.
Police plan to have 2,700 officers in place.
Cologne’s police chief Juergen Mathies warned: “One thing I want to make clear is that we will intervene against any kind of violence quickly, decisively and forcefully”.
Relations between Turkey and Germany remain strained after the German parliament, the Bundestag, passed a resolution last month acknowledging the mass killings of Armenians in the Ottoman republic in 1915-16 as genocide of Armenian people.
Since the failed putsch Mr Erdogan has cracked down on those suspected of being linked to the coup. “Such a shame to see that European Union failed in upholding democracy and showing solidarity with a candidate country in the face of a coup threat”.
Gulen has an estimated 100,000 followers in Germany, which is home to about 3 million people of Turkish heritage.
According to the Turkish Communities organization in Germany, in the 2015 elections, 60 percent of the Turks in Germany voted for the governing Justice and Development Party (AKP).
Germany’s integration commissioner Aydan Ozoguz underlined Erdogan’s influence, saying he was concerned that “the relationships of people living here with Turkey are being massively exploited politically”.
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On the government’s decisions to temporary suspend employees in the public sector, Erdogan said the suspension is done by activating judicial mechanisms and within the law.
