Anadolu reported that Turkey’s top broadcasting authority on Tuesday revoked the licenses for 24 radio and television companies that it said are linked to Fethullah Gulen, whom Erdogan blames for masterminding the coup.
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Turks found their country locked in a state of emergency Thursday as their President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, vowed to root out perceived enemies of the state following a failed coup over the weekend.
“This parallel terrorist organisation will no longer be an effective pawn for any country”, he said, referring to what the government has long alleged is a state within a state controlled by Mr Gulen’s followers.
Mr Yildirim said the justice ministry had sent a dossier to United States authorities on Mr Gulen, a former Erdogan ally whose religious movement blends conservative, Islamic values with a pro-Western outlook and who has a network of supporters within Turkey.
The two allies cooperate in the US -led war against the Islamic State group, with American military planes flying missions from Turkey’s Incirlik air base into neighboring Iraq and Syria.
The base, which is used by Turkish and USA forces in the air campaign against Islamic State, has been without power in the days since the failed coup.
Mr Erdoğan blamed the uprising on his former ally Fethullah Gülen, the Islamic cleric who lives in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania in the United States.
The country will need a major restructuring of its security forces, having gutted the leadership of its military, with at least 118 generals and admirals detained, stripping the general-rank command of the Turkish military by a third, and suspending 8,777 Interior Ministry members, mostly police officers, state media reports say.
A further 492 were sacked from the Religious Affairs Directorate and 257 from the prime minister’s office.
Turkey’s Board of Higher Education requested resignations from 1,577 university deans.
In a sign of worldwide concern, a German official said a serious fissure had opened in Turkey and he feared fighting would break out within Germany’s large Turkish community.
Turkey sent dossiers containing details of Gulen’s activities to the US, deputy prime minister Numan Kurtulmus said. Regarding Turkey’s demand that Gulen be extradited, Yildirim compared the situation to the USA hunt for Osama bin Laden after the September 11 attacks.
Two pilots who downed a Russian jet previous year are also among “the detained soldiers who attempted the coup”, said Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag. “All evidence shows that the coup attempt was organised on his will and orders”.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the materials would be reviewed by the Departments of State and Justice.
This treaty excludes offences “of a political character” although it does cover those “committed or attempted against a head of state or a head of government”.
Turkey has repeatedly named Gulen as the instigator of its turmoil and demands his extradition from the United States.
If the request survived those tests and is found lawful, it would still need to get the approval of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who can consider non-legal factors, such as humanitarian arguments.
Erdogan, speaking to a national television audience, said the state of emergency was not a threat to democracy.
“I condemn and reject in the strongest terms the attempted coup”, Gulen, 77, said in an interview Monday with USA TODAY and several other reporters.
“We see mass arrest or detentions and mass firings of people from positions of employment in a very rapid period [of] time without a lot of evidence having been presented for those actions, that creates concerns”, he said.
“U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein called on Turkey to uphold rule of law and provide fair trials”.
“This is the reaction of a wounded animal, a government which fears a repeat of the coup”, political scientist Ahmet Insel said.
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Mr Erdogan and other officials have suggested bringing back the death penalty as a punishment, but EU officials have warned it would end Turkey’s hopes of joining the union. Addressing hundreds of supporters outside his Istanbul residence early Tuesday, Erdogan responded to calls for the reintroduction of the death penalty with the simple statement: “You can not put aside the people’s demands”.
