The failed coup and the subsequent crackdown followed moves by Erdogan to reshape both the military and the judiciary. White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said the US would follow procedures in a decades-old extradition treaty and called Turkish charges that the USA was harbouring Gulen “factually incorrect”.
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Responding to the widening crackdown, the USA secretary of state, John Kerry, urged “the government of Turkey to uphold the highest standards of respect for the nation’s democratic institutions and the rule of law”.
He said the coup attempt claimed 208 lives including 60 police officers, three soldiers and 145 civilians who “are our hero martyrs”. Another 1,400 were injured.
Mogherini expressed concern about the possibility of other changes, noting that no country could join the European Union if it reintroduces the death penalty. Erdogan has blamed USA -based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen for orchestrating the attempted power grab.
Obviously Mr Erdogan has little room for taking risks.
Its application has faltered several times, but was recently given a boost after it made a deal with the union to stem the flow of refugees leaving its shores, bound for countries like Germany.
Of the dead, more than 100 were participants in the coup, the ministry said, adding that there was no doubt the coup had been staged by followers of US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen. In addition to Incirlik, they searched the Air Force Academy premises and residences in Istanbul, Anadolu reported.
Erdogan’s government appears to have turned on the police forces despite the fact that they joined thousands of fellow Turks over the weekend who heeded his call to take to the streets and oppose the renegade soldiers carrying out the coup.
Overnight and into Monday morning the suspended police officers were called to regional headquarters and forced to hand over their weapons, Hurriyet reports. More than a sixth of the country’s judges and prosecutors have been removed from duty.
While Erdoğan and his allies have amplified the sense of an authoritarian crackdown by publicly using language such as “purge” and “cleansing” to describe the government reaction, Turkish officials on Monday expressed frustration at western criticism.
United States Secretary of State John Kerry cautioned Monday (July 18) that Turkey’s membership in North Atlantic Treaty Organisation could be jeopardised if it abandons democratic principles and the rule of law in a post-coup crackdown.
Kerry said he had urged his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu to “send us evidence, not allegations”. Proceedings were adjourned until Thursday.
Turkey has requested their extradition; they have applied for asylum in Greece.
Inside Story – What’s behind Turkey’s failed coup?
The EU’s foreign policy chief says the rule of law in Turkey needs protection.
“We need to respect, have Turkey respect, democracy, human rights and fundamental freedoms”, she said.
“I’m very concerned. It is exactly what we feared”, he said in Brussels.
Erdogan broke down in tears and vowed revenge at a funeral for a friend and numerous other 290 Turks killed in the failed coup.
Kerry said Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has repeatedly assured him that the government will respect democracy and the law.
President Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday told crowds of supporters, called to the streets by the government and by mosques across the country, that parliament must consider their demands to apply the death penalty for the plotters.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman said if Turkey reinstates the death penalty it would lead to the suspension of its accession talks to join the EU. Nobody has been executed in the country since 1984.
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After Erdogan said yesterday that Turkey would consider a return of capital punishment, spokesman Steffen Seibert said such a move “would mean the end of European Union membership talks”.
