Turkey is cooperating with the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) government to clamp down on groups linked to Fetullah Gulen, the USA -based preacher accused of being behind the July 15 coup bid, the Turkish ambassador said Monday.
Advertisement
Anadolu Agency says the two were captured early Monday near the Aegean resort of Marmaris, bringing the number of suspects caught in the operation that began late Sunday to 11.
Erdogan had been on vacation during the July 15 coup.
The coup attempt and resulting purges have shocked Turkey, which last saw a violent military power grab in 1980, and have shaken confidence in the stability of a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation member key to the US -led fight against Islamic State and to stopping illegal migration to Europe.
“We will make a distinction between those who are guilty and those who are not”.
President Erdogan accuses the US -based Turkish imam Fethullah Gulen of masterminding the coup.
Gulen is an Erdogan opponent who has lived in the United States for almost two decades and has denied any connection in the uprising.
In a move created to bring the military under tighter control, Erdogan said on Saturday (July 30) that Turkey will shut down its military academies and put the armed forces under the command of the defence minister.
The U.S. chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Joseph Dunford, visited U.S. military personnel stationed at Turkey’s Incirlik air base Monday.
He said his swift escape saved him from being killed or taken hostage.
Retaliating after a military attempt to unseat him, Erdogan has launched a purge that has seen tens of thousands people suspended from their jobs and nearly 19,000 detained.
Approximately one-third of Turkey’s generals and admirals have been detained since July 15.
“This is a double-standard by German judicial authority”, Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said, describing the move as a “ban on the freedom of expression”. He said a restructuring of Turkey’s intelligence structures may follow.
Turkey summoned a senior German diplomat on Monday, a day after a rally in Cologne in support of the Turkish president who was not permitted to address the crowd by video conference.
Germany’s constitutional court banned an application to show live speeches from Turkey by politicians, including Erdogan, amid security concerns and fears of the spillover of the security tensions from Turkey to Germany, which is home to about three million people of Turkish origin.
According to Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag, at least 1,845 cases have been opened over insults to Erdogan in the previous two years.
Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen is accused by Turkey of orchestrating the failed putsch.
Turkey will have to back out of the agreement if the European Union does not deliver visa liberalisation as promised, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu was quoted as telling Germany’s daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. “We want the death penalty!”
He also announced plans to switch Turkey’s largely conscript army toward a force “made up of experts who are totally focused on the defense of the nation”.
Turkey is now in a state of emergency, allowing Erdogan to rule by decree.
Advertisement
The cleric has however condemned the coup. Let them take me away.
