Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and his government accuse Gulen of orchestrating a failed military takeover on Friday.
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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.
Already, almost 10,000 people have been arrested while hundreds of schools have been closed.
France declared its own state of emergency following last November’s attacks by militants in Paris.
The president suggested military purges would continue.
The state of emergency was needed “in order to remove swiftly all the elements of the terrorist organisation involved in the coup attempt”, Erdogan said at the presidential palace in Ankara.
The US said it had received documents on Gulen from Turkey and was reviewing them to see if they constituted a formal extradition request, as Turkey has said it will seek.
Kiriakou predicted that Erdogan would use his democratic credentials in a bid to retain credibility and standing with the U.S. government and other countries as he moved to consolidate and increase his power. At least 264 people died in fierce clashes that carried into Saturday, though other estimates put the figure dozens higher.
Simsek said there would be no backsliding on human rights.
Turkey’s Education Ministry on Tuesday suspended 15,200 personnel in connection with the failed coup, state media reported.
Ankara has accused Fethullah Gulen, a retired imam who lives in Pennsylvania, of masterminding the overthrow attempt. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says Turkey must provide hard evidence that Gulen was behind the foiled coup, and that mere allegations of wrongdoing wouldn’t suffice.
“Military coups are nothing new in modern Turkey”.
Turkey’s domestic situation is increasingly a concern as the crackdown widens.
He said Obama “reiterated once again the strong commitment of the United States to the democratically elected civilian government of Turkey” and commended the Turkish people’s effort in “defending the government and repelling the coup” last week, Anadolu Agency reports.
The fight against coup plotters “should not be turned into a witch hunt”, Ozev said.
Some 1,500 finance ministry officials have also been removed from their posts.
A further 492 were sacked from the Religious Affairs Directorate and 257 from the prime minister’s office. He identified “structural and individual” intelligence failures during the coup attempt and also said that work was underway to restructure the army, NTV reported.
Saban Ceylan, a taxi driver in Istanbul, said he expected his income to drop because of the state of emergency.
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Amnesty International said it recognized that the government had to take measures to prevent another coup attempt, but warned that under the state of emergency, dismissed civil servants would not be able to challenge the decrees in administrative courts and detention periods would be extended.
