Government officials are attempting to “crack down” on professionals after the failed coup attempts in Ankara and Istanbul last week.
Advertisement
In a separate conflict, Turkish jets carried out cross-border strikes against Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq, killing 20 alleged militants, state media reported Wednesday.
The defense ministers of Turkey and the United States also discussed over the telephone the situation at Incirlik Air Base on Tuesday.
Some observers say an ongoing electricity blackout at an air base used by U.S. planes in southeast Turkey is in fact to show Washington that unless it complies with the Gulen extradition request, which has been filed, Ankara can make life hard for the US. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Wednesday urged that those accused after the coup attempt be able to defend themselves in a “robust and legitimate process”.
The announcement followed long meetings of Turkey’s national security council and cabinet chaired by Erdogan at the presidential palace. The AK Party that Erdogan co-founded has a clear majority in the legislature.
Taksim was three years ago a symbol of defiance against the autocratic president during the anti-government protects centred in nearby Gezi park.
According to the president and other officials, followers of a Muslim cleric and Erdogan rival, Fethullah Gulen, were responsible for the conspiracy.
Under Article 120, in the event of serious indications of widespread acts of violence aimed at the destruction of the free democratic order, a state of emergency may be declared in one or more regions or throughout the country for a period not exceeding six months. Turkey was not a democracy at the time, but United States statesmen weren’t terribly anxious, so long as the Turkish president remained a “strongman of the right sort”.
“The goal of the state of emergency is to most effectively and swiftly take steps necessary to eliminate the threat to democracy in our country, the rule of law, and the rights and freedom of our citizens”, Erdogan said. The government has detained thousands of military officers and has suspended 3,000 members of the judiciary and 9,000 officials in the Interior Ministry.
Cracking down on alleged subversives in education, Turkey also said Wednesday that it would close more than 600 private schools and dormitories following the attempted coup, spurring fears that the state’s move against perceived enemies is throwing key institutions in the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ally into disarray.
European Union leaders have said that Turkey’s negotiations to join their bloc will be terminated if it brings back the death penalty, and have criticized the wave of arrests that followed the failed putsch.
Erdogan and Gulen were once allies, but had a falling out over 2013 corruption investigations in Turkey, which the Turkish leader blamed on Gulen.
According to a senior Turkish intelligence official, Turkish authorities have begun to arrest defense attaches stationed in several countries overseas who might have been involved with the attempted putsch. Perhaps the Turkish leader was anxious that the cleric knew too many secrets about Erdogan’s modus operandi and might reveal them during a trial.
Advertisement
But as he exults in the defeat of the plotters, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan seems to be using the rebellion as a pretext for suppressing dissent and purging the bureaucracy of his political opponents.
