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Turkey coup: purge widens to the education sector

The country won’t be under military rule, and army units will take orders from provincial governors, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in Ankara on Wednesday, after a day of meetings with top generals on the National Security Council followed by the cabinet.

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Mr Erdogan is expected to make a major announcement today, with some in Turkey fearing he will declare martial law, set curfews or even bring back the death penalty.

“The death penalty undermines human dignity and is incompatible with Turkey’s global obligations”. If instead the Turkish government is about fighting a dirty war with Kurds, ignoring ISIL, pursuing a covert war in Syria that promotes radicalism and a steady refugee stream to Europe through unguarded borders, and overthrowing the rule of law, due process, press freedom and civil liberties at home, Kerry is right that North Atlantic Treaty Organisation will have to take another long hard look at its relationship with Ankara.

Under the U.S. -Turkey extradition agreement, Washington can only extradite a person if he or she has committed an “extraditable act”.

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek says the country’s civil service won’t suffer as a result of large-scale dismissals or suspensions of government officials in the wake of the failed coup.

“There might be other countries involved in the coup attempt”.

Ninety-nine generals have been charged in connection with the coup, which the government claims was masterminded by United States based cleric Fethullah Gulen.

The state of emergency announcement needs to be published in a state gazette and lawmakers have to approve it for it to take effect, according to analysts.

At a joint news conference with Kerry in Washington, Dion echoed that point. “We condemn this coup and we are clear about our desire to see democracy sustained and flourish in Turkey”.

“We are on the same page”.

Dion elaborated briefly in an interview.

“We owe it to our people to go after them”. Following the coup, Turkey moved to eliminate thousands of perceived dissenters from the educational system, military and government.

Pickerill declined to provide further details.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday said that the measure was being taken to counter threats to Turkish democracy and wasn’t meant to curb basic freedoms.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier called on Turkey to restrict the state of emergency to the shortest period that was absolutely necessary.

“Coups are not a good thing”, Trudeau said in French when asked about Turkey at an Ottawa-area event.

Emergency rule, which was in force in parts of Turkey’s largely Kurdish southeast until the last decade, allows the government to issue decrees with the force of law and suspend rights. “And those are preoccupations that we’ve communicated to the Turks regarding this”.

The Canadian Association of University Teachers sent a letter to the Turkish embassy in Ottawa, calling for an end to a crackdown on educators, and the reinstatement of all those fired.

Turkey announced plans Wednesday to close 600 private schools, after firing more than 20,000 public sector teachers, and is planning to revoke the licenses of 21,000 other private school teachers.

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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.

Turkey coup purge widens to the education sector