Officials in Ankara say former air force chief Akin Ozturk was a co-leader of the coup.
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On Monday, the government widened the roundup to include about 9,000 Interior Ministry employees, among them almost 8,000 policemen.
Also Monday, Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook told reporters that Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and the USA military were taken off-guard by the coup attempt. At the time Erdoğan accused the professors who signed the petition of “treason.” The top brass did not support the coup.
More than 290 people, includes at least 190 civilians and 100 coup plotters, were killed in the coup attempt that swept Turkey on Friday night but was foiled by Saturday morning. His voice cracked and he wept as he spoke with reporters after a Cabinet meeting and repeated a question his grandson had put to him: “Why are they killing people?”
Singaporeans have been advised to reconsider the need for non-essential travel to Ankara and Istanbul in the wake of the recent series of terror attacks in Turkey, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) said in its latest travel notice. “We will provide more proof than they want”, Yildirim said.
Lynch said the USA would not allow itself to become a platform for money-laundering, while an Federal Bureau of Investigation official in the Malaysia case said the Malaysian people had been defrauded on an enormous scale.
Turkey purged its police on Monday after rounding up thousands of soldiers in the wake of the failed coup, and said it could reconsider its friendship with the U.S. unless Washington hands over the cleric.
If it’s true that Gulen, who’s no angel himself, was the mastermind of the incompetent coup attempt, then the USA will hand him over, Secretary of State John Kerry said.
Yildirim said the justice ministry had sent a dossier to USA authorities on Gulen, whose religious movement blends conservative Islamic values with a pro-Western outlook and who has a network of supporters within Turkey.
A senior security official told Reuters that 8000 police officers, including in the capital Ankara and the biggest city Istanbul, had been removed from their posts on suspicion of links to Friday’s abortive coup. He called on the USA to extradite him. Any extradition request from Turkey, once submitted, would be evaluated under the terms of a treaty between the two countries, he added. We would like to see cooperation from the USA authorities on this issue.
Erdogan’s spokesman said on Tuesday the government was preparing a formal request to the United States for the extradition of Gulen.
The attempt was prevented by military troops loyal to the government, along with police units and millions of Turkish citizens in favor of democracy.
The government’s focus on accusations against Gulen, who has denied any involvement in the coup, has heightened tensions between the United States and Turkey, in particular.
European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said at a news conference with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry that the coup “is no excuse to take the country away from fundamental rights and the rule of law, and we will be extremely vigilant on that”. “We have taken precautions against these pieces of military equipment”.
He expressed “deep regret” at suggestions the death penalty could be reinstated.
The military coup was a blast from the past in the way it was executed: occupying some state institutions and traffic nodes along with flying some planes overhead is no longer sufficient without controlling the message on social media.
“Turkey is a rule-of-law state”, the prime minister said.
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Erdogan says the pro-government death toll in the botched coup was 246.
