The Turkish government has blamed Friday’s failed coup on Fethullah Gulen, a Muslim cleric living in Pennsylvania in self-exile.
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President Erdogan also says he’ll support the return of the death penalty if it’s approved by the national parliament.
1,577 university deans have been sacked and the education ministry have moved to revoke the licences of 21,000 teachers working in private institutions.
Erdogan stressed that Turkey will remain a democratic parliamentary system, and “never step back from it”.
The Turkish government has announced plans to suspend human rights laws as it prepares to implement the country’s new state of emergency following the failed coup.
“Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan today once again demonstrated he will go to any length necessary to solidify his power and persecute his critics”, Gulen said in a statement.
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on Twitter that the state of emergency was not aimed at “daily lives” but at “rapid functioning” of state mechanisms.
Speaking after a meeting of the National Security Council in Ankara lasting almost five hours, he said the state of emergency was needed “to remove this threat as soon as possible”.
Turkey has long sought his return from the United States to face trial at home over accusations of running a “terrorist organisation” seeking to overthrow Erdogan, his erstwhile ally.
The purge after the failed coup, which left more than 260 people dead, saw more than 50,000 civil servants fired, suspended or detained.
On Wednesday night, Turkey imposed a three-month-long state of emergency.
In his televised address, Erdogan also tried to reassure the public that military powers will not be expanded, adding that Turkey would emerge as a “stronger nation” following the coup attempt.
The German Foreign Ministry urged Turkey on Thursday to end the state of emergeny as soon as possible, adding that by rule of law, proportionality must be maintained in Ankara’s response to last week’s attempted coup.
The statement added that the state of emergency is a measure permissible under global law “taken by many states when there is an imminent threat to its security and order, as is the case with a major European democracy which has recently extended for another six months the country wide state of emergency”.
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He lashed out at other critics, among them Egyptian leader Abdul Fatah al-Sisi, whom Erdogan called a “coup plotter” who has killed thousands.
