U.S. President Barack Obama has offered to aid in the investigation of last week’s attempted coup.
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While declaring the imposition of the emergency Erdogan said that the measure was being taken to counter threats to Turkish democracy.
On Tuesday, authorities shut down media outlets deemed to be supportive of the cleric and said 15,000 people had been fired from the education ministry, 492 from the Religious Affairs Directorate, 257 from the prime minister’s office and 100 intelligence officials. From a position of stability as the regional power in the Levant, under his guidance Turkey now finds itself at war with adversaries on two borders, estranged from the US, Russia and Israel as well as the Gulf Arab states, at odds with Europe over a host of political and economic issues, and confronted by a rising tide of domestic terrorism.
Turkey’s opposition parties have united against the coup attempt, condemning it in the harshest terms and underscoring their determination to preserve democracy and the rule of law in Turkey. In Washington, the State Department confirmed that Washington did receive some “materials” from Ankara, but that it is working with the Justice Department to review and analyze “whether they constitute a formal extradition request”.
Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus defended the crackdown on judiciary officials in an interview with CNN-Turk, saying many of them would have played a role had the coup attempt succeeded.
“We need to be more sensitive”.
The president, who has said he narrowly escaped being killed or captured by renegade military units, suggested that purges would continue within military ranks.
The firings came in addition to about 9,000 people Ankara has detained for suspected involvement in the attempted overthrow of President Erdogan’s government. “They will pay a heavy price for their treason to Turkey”.
“I urge the USA government to reject any effort to abuse the extradition process to carry out political vendettas”.
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein on Tuesday voiced “serious alarm” at the mass suspension of judges and prosecutors and urged Turkey to allow independent monitors to visit those who have been detained.
Turkey hasn’t executed anyone since 1984, and capital punishment was legally abolished in 2004 as part of Turkey’s bid to join the European Union. Possibly anticipating investor jitters, Erdogan criticized Standard & Poor’s for downgrading its credit rating for Turkey deeper into “junk” status and said the country would remain financially disciplined.
The Turkish leader has fired back at critics of the government actions, telling France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault – who had warned Erdogan not to use the failed coup as a carte blanche to silence his opponents – to “mind his own business”.
Turkey in 2002 lifted its last state of emergency, which had been imposed in provinces in the southeast for the fight against Kurdish militants in 1987.
One of the ruling party’s most senior figures, Mustafa Sentop, on Wednesday called for the restoration of the death penalty for crimes aimed at changing the constitutional order.
In other moves, Turkey demanded the resignations of 1,577 university deans and halted foreign assignments for state-employed academics. He also has close ties with many major corporations, and is said to have over 1 million supporters across Turkey.
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The government has since cracked down hard on alleged rebel soldiers, formally arresting 99 of 118 detained generals and admirals, and also placing in custody thousands of troops, with some later seen bruised and wounded.
