On Sunday, that show of opposition to the takeover effort will expand with a demonstration at Istanbul’s Taksim Square organized by the the largest opposition party, the center-left secular CHP, which also opposes the state of emergency.
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks to people demonstrating against the failed military coup attempt.
“Any reports that we had any previous knowledge of a coup attempt, that there was any United States involvement in it, that we were anything other than entirely supportive of Turkish democracy are completely false, unequivocally false”, Obama said.
With crowds expected to be boosted by free public transport in the city of 15 million, the event will seek to soothe divisions after the shock of the July 15 coup and a subsequent government crackdown.
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has issued his first decrees under the new emergency powers now in force in the country following the failed coup a week ago. Turkey’s prime minister announced that the government will be disbanding the presidential guard.
Steel barriers were erected around the square to protect the marchers, who entered through security checkpoints.
Turkish officials say they will respect the rule of law during the state of emergency, although some commentators have wondered whether the purges are targeting opponents of Erdogan who had nothing to do with the coup.
Despite Turkey’s political divisions, Istanbul’s mayor and other AK party leaders joined the opposition demonstrators.
On Friday, CHP organizers invited Erdogan’s AKP supporters to the rally and they agreed.
Posters at the rally proclaimed “No to coups” and “We’re standing up for the republic and democracy”.
The official number of those in custody since the Jul 15 putsch has surged above 13,000 soldiers, police, justice officials and civilians in a wave of arrests that has alarmed North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies and European leaders.
Erdogan was also asked about calls for the restoration of capital punishment for coup plotters in Turkey.
In addition, Erdogan said, the government has closed and seized the assets of 15 universities, 934 other schools, 109 student dormitories, 19 unions, 35 medical institutions as well as numerous other associations and foundations suspected of links to Gulen’s movement.
It also detained a nephew of US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, state-run media reported, the first time one of his relatives has been apprehended in the current crackdown.
Erdogan has ordered the closure of thousands of charities, foundations and private schools with suspected ties to USA -based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, who has many supporters in Turkey.
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.
Gulen is also accused of a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police and judiciary, forming what is commonly known as the “parallel state”.
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Erdogan has said Ankara will soon dispatch its justice and interior ministers to Washington, where President Barack Obama has said that any solid “evidence” would be looked at seriously under USA law.
