Erdogan’s government said it has fired almost 22,000 education ministry workers, mostly teachers, taken steps to revoke the licenses of 21,000 other teachers at private schools and sacked or detained half a dozen university presidents in a campaign to root out alleged supporters of a USA -based Muslim cleric blamed for the failed insurrection. Gulen has denied any knowledge. Government spokesman Kalin said the US has no reason to deny such a request and a refusal would lead many Turks to suspect USA authorities were protecting Gulen. We would like to see cooperation from the USA authorities on this issue.
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“The president and secretary agreed that all parties in Turkey should support the democratically elected government of Turkey, show restraint and avoid any violence or bloodshed”, a statement from the U.S. State Department read. “If I stayed (in Marmaris) 10, 15 minutes more, I would either have been killed or kidnapped and taken away by them”, he said.
The purges against suspected Gulen supporters follow earlier aggressive moves by Erdogan’s administration against Gulen loyalists in the government, police and judiciary following corruption probes targeting Erdogan associates and family members in late 2013 – prosecutions the government says were orchestrated by Gulen.
In other developments, a soldier allegedly linked to the attack on a hotel where Erdogan had been vacationing during the foiled coup was arrested in southwestern Turkey, the state agency Anadolu reported Thursday. No reason was given for the detention.
In wider signs of a massive purge, 21,000 teachers have been fired across the country and the dean of every university in Turkey has been suspended. The bank’s Monetary Policy Committee said it has reduced its overnight marginal funding rate from 9 percent to 8.75 percent.
Aaron Stein, a resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East, said many senior Turkish officials believed Washington had to take sides – “choose Turkey or choose Gulen”.
Mevlut Cavusoglu, Turkey’s foreign minister, confirmed in an interview Tuesday that the issue of civilian oversight of the military – a matter of long-standing debate within Turkish politics – would be addressed during the series of meetings Wednesday. Had they succeeded it is clear that these people would have been included into this business.
“The people on the streets have made that request”, Mr. Erdogan said. Several European officials have said such a move would be the end of Turkey’s attempts to join. It is unlikely Erdogan is going to care either, but that does not make having the death penalty any less “democratic”, as that would mean that observers would have to denounce the US’ commitment to democracy as it operates its own capital punishment legislation.
Earlier this week John Kerry told officials Turkey could lose its North Atlantic Treaty Organisation membership if it pushes ahead with plans to reinstate the death penalty, while European Union leaders have said it could threaten their membership deal. “We don’t have role to play about whether another government would consider that option [the death penalty]”.
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said the preacher led a “terrorist organization”. He said the victory over the plotters was “epic” and that no coup in the history of Turkey had been as brutal as the one that this government survived. “That’s what the people say”, he said.
Yildirim also lashed out at Europe, whose leaders have expressed concerns over the purges underway across Turkey’s key state institutions.
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While Turkey has joined the US -led drive against Islamic State in Syria, Erdogan’s government has been uncomfortable with USA backing of a Syrian Kurdish force, which it considers an appendage of the PKK, a Kurdish rebel group fighting for independence for Turkey’s Kurds.
