Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced a three-month state of emergency to enable the authorities to take swift and effective action against those responsible for last weekend’s failed military coup.
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Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a news conference following the National Security Council and cabinet meetings at the Presidential Palace in Ankara, Turkey, July 20, 2016.
Turkey is proceeding with an extradition request for United States-based cleric Fetullah Gulen, who the government blames for orchestrating the coup attempt.
Mr Erdogan has warned of further arrests, sackings and suspensions as part of a far-reaching crackdown by Turkish authorities on those suspected of involvement in the coup. “Nearly every day we are seeing new measures that flout the rule of law and that disregard the principle of proportionality, ” government spokesman Steffen Seibert said on Wednesday.
The EUA said it was calling on all “European governments, universities and scholars to speak out against these developments and to support democracy in Turkey, including institutional autonomy and academic freedom for scholars and students”. Moreover, at least 82 generals and admirals – including the accused ringleader, Gen. Akin Ostuk – are among the thousands detained, and a call went out Tuesday for almost 1,600 university deans to resign, the Turkish agency further reports.
In their first telephone conversation since the attempted overthrow, President Barack Obama pledged U.S. assistance to Erdogan for the investigation into the putsch, which has threatened to once again raise tensions between the uneasy North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies. Erdogan also said the government’s sweep was ongoing, and that foreign countries could have had a hand in the incident.
Turkey is demanding that Washington extradite Gulen, who has been in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania since the late 1990s and who the government has long accused of being behind a “parallel terrorist organization”.
In a statement, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, the United Nations’ high commissioner for human rights, voiced “serious alarm”.
Hundreds of employees were dismissed from other government departments, including the Directorate of Religious Affairs, where a large number of preachers and religious instructors were fired.
Turkey has faced global calls for restraint in its handling of the aftermath of the failed coup. About 8,000 police officers, including in the capital Ankara and the biggest city Istanbul, have been removed on suspicion of links to the plot.
“About the Gulen movement… we have received requests before the coup and after from the government of Turkey about the movement that is existing in Canada, and we have asked for evidence because otherwise the Canadian justice system can not address an issue on the basis of allegations”, Dion explained.
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And Kerry said Turkish officials have told the US ambassador to Turkey that power to Incirlik would be restored in the next two days. “We are strategic partners”, Erdogan said.
