The streets of Turkey’s major cities were quiet Friday, a day after Turkish lawmakers approved a three-month state of emergency that allows the government to extend detention times and issue decrees without parliamentary approval.
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Turkish authorities ordered 2,745 judges and prosecutors to be detained over the coup as the government cracked down on suspected followers of US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen.
“Of course that’s going to happen”, said Serdar Kilic, Turkey’s ambassador to Washington, in his first news conference since the uprising was quashed by the government on Saturday.
Obama also echoed comments by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry that Turkey must present evidence if it wants Gulen to be extradited.
Gulen, who denies involvement in the attempted power grab, is the spiritual leader of the Hizmet movement which operates schools around the world and is also linked to media organisations, businesses and think-tanks.
The United States does not need to take years to extradite a U.S.-based Muslim cleric accused by Turkey of masterminding a failed military coup, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Friday.
The Greek military and coast guard remain on standby to ensure that participants in Turkey’s failed coup who remain unaccounted for do not attempt to sneak into Greece via the Aegean. Another 40,000 educators were suspended or will be, according to the government-run Anadolu Agency.
But worries have been growing from Turkey’s North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies and others. In Turkey, people who received a Gulen education have found work in the military, judiciary, police and other ministries.
Some Turks, possibly influenced by traditional mistrust of USA policy in the region, have speculated that the United States is protecting Gulen and knew about the plot to overthrow the Turkish government.
“The founders of Zaman International School started with the spiritual motivation of Mr Fethullah Gulen; however, Mr Gulen has never had any official link, ownership or involvement in the school administration”, Ejder Kilic, chairman of Zaman Co Ltd, said in a statement emailed to AFP.
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Teachers were dismissed because they were part of “Gulenists’ attempts to infiltrate the government”, Kilic said.
