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Turkey extends coup purge to close schools and hospitals

The decree, which local media noted as being the first taken under the powers of the recently-declared state of emergency, also extends the legal time a person can be detained to 30 days. It said this would facilitate a full investigation into the coup attempt.

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Also on Satuday, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim Turkish said authorities would also disband the elite presidential guard after detaining nearly 300 of its members in the wake of the failed coup.

Education Minister Ismet Yilmaz said the new teachers will replace state educators who have been dismissed as well as teachers in private schools with alleged links to Fethullah Gulen, a US -based cleric who has denied Turkish accusations that he directed the coup attempt that killed about 290 people.

Ankara says it will have completed a dossier requesting the 75-year-old’s extradition from the United States within the next ten days.

Turkish authorities detained Gulen’s top aide Saturday, according to a source from the Turkish president’s office. Halis Hanci, described as the cleric’s right-hand man, apparently entered Turkey two days before the abortive coup.

President Barack Obama said Friday the USA would take seriously any “evidence” of wrongdoing by the preacher.

“There will no longer be a presidential guard, there is no objective, there is no need”, Yildirim said, speaking to A Haber channel.

“They are traitors”, Erdogan told Reuters in an interview on Thursday.

Meanwhile, on Saturday, more than a thousand army soldiers detained in the wake of the July 15 coup were released.

He said it would enable the authorities to root out those who masterminded and supported a failed coup over a week ago.

The state of emergency allows the president and government to pass laws without first having to win parliamentary support and also allows them to curb or suspend rights and freedoms as they deem necessary.

The Turkish treasury and a state agency that regulates foundations have taken over more than 1,200 foundations and associations, about 1,000 private educational institutions and student dormitories, 35 healthcare institutions, 19 labour groups and 15 universities.

Parliament must still approve the decree but requires only a simply majority, which the government has.

In an address to lawmakers late on Friday Erdogan vowed to bring to justice supporters of the Gulenist “terrorist” movement.

The government also shut down more than 2,000 institutions linked to the cleric Fethullah Gulen, Edogan’s longtime rival who has been in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania since 1999.

Turkey’s secular Republican People’s Party, CHP, has planned a rally for Sunday.

Since the coup, massive crowds of flag-waving Erdogan supporters have taken to the streets night after night to celebrate their leader.

After the coup, Western countries pledged support for democracy in Turkey, a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ally and an important partner in the fight against Islamic State, but have also expressed concern over the scale of subsequent purges of state institutions.

Fethullah Gulen, who was once an ally of Mr Erdogan but then fell out with him, has called on the USA government to block Turkey’s attempts to extradite him.

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“We are very surprised that our allies have not come to Turkey to visit even after one week has passed”, Omer Celik told reporters.

Ankara court releases 1200 soldiers detained after failed coup in Turkey