Turkey on Wednesday said it was discharging 149 generals and ordering the closure of dozens of media outlets, in the next phase of its controversial crackdown in the wake of the failed coup.
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The Turkish Interior Minister Efkana Ala has said that more than 15,000 people have been detained since the failed coup, with 8,113 people formally arrested and awaiting trial.
“For the sake of worldwide efforts to restore peace in turbulent times, as well as to safeguard the future of democracy in the Middle East, the United States must not accommodate an autocrat who is turning a failed putsch into a slow-motion coup of his own against constitutional government”. The Istanbul-based newspaper is known for its close links with the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) of President Erdogan and politically conservative stand.
If the USA courts, which have final say on the case, reject Turkey’s request on grounds of insufficient evidence, this will further sour the relationship and give a fresh boost to anti-Americanism in Turkey across the political spectrum – with potentially serious long-term effects for the Middle East, Europe and other parts of the world.
Erdogan has been accusing onetime ally Gulen of trying to overthrow him since 2013, when a corruption probe ensnared several of his cabinet ministers. Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu declared in an article published by Al-Jazeera that “Turkish people are appalled at the US’ insistence in harboring him” and warned that the extradition ruling “may shape the future relations” of the United States and Turkey. Washington has responded cautiously to the request to extradite Gulen, saying it must provide clear evidence of his involvement in the coup plot. Erdogan has roundly criticized the US for not immediately complying with his request.
“I know that the United States has a finger in this”.
President Barack Obama had already declared last week: “Any reports that we had any previous knowledge of a coup attempt, that there was any USA involvement in it, that we were anything other than entirely supportive of Turkish democracy are completely false, unequivocally false”. The coup attempt was a trauma for all Turks, but the worldwide community has sent mixed signals, expressing sympathy for the coup victims but also criticism of the ongoing purge.
Yeni Şafak’s July 25 front-page headline read: “This man led the coup”, next to a photograph of the veteran armyman.
One newspaper published a photograph of a hotel it identified as a nerve center for Central Intelligence Agency agents it said helped hatch the coup plot this month.
“The CIA was at work in this hotel that night”, the headline in the pro-government Sabah newspaper said, above a photo of the Splendid Hotel on Buyukada, the largest of a group of islands in the Marmara sea just off Istanbul. A government official later said some 3,000 people who were detained have been released.
He launched a widespread crackdown, arresting thousands of service personnel and sacking or suspending thousands of judges, government officials, school teachers and university heads.
Turmoil in Turkey’s armed forces raises questions about its ability to contain the Islamic State militant threat in neighboring Syria and the renewed Kurdish insurgency in its southeast, military analysts say. “He is doing what he does best, consolidating power”. The military has ousted four governments in the past 60 years.
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Sometimes the perceived enemy is less formidable. Erdogan has pledged to “cleanse” state institutions from Gulenists.
