Officials on Wednesday raised the death toll from the violence surrounding the coup attempt to 240 government supporters.
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The government has also revoked the press credentials of 34 journalists because of alleged ties to Gulen’s movement, Turkish media reported.
“With respect to Mr. Gulen, we have consistently said to our friends in Turkey and allies in Turkey that we need evidence”, Kerry told reporters at the State Department.
Erdogan will then at 1200 GMT chair a meeting of the cabinet, also at the palace, whose immediate vicinity was bombed during the botched coup bid.
Around 50,000 soldiers, police, judges, civil servants, and teachers have been rounded up, sacked, or suspended since the military coup attempt.
The state-run Anadolu news agency reported the teachers are believed to have ties to US -based cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom the government has accused of being behind the failed military coup last week.
Turkey’s education ministry has revoked the licenses of 21,000 teachers working in private institutions, an official at the ministry told Reuters on Tuesday, part of an expanding government crackdown.
The Turkish government has previously banned access to websites deemed to be carrying material critical of Turkey, including YouTube and Twitter.
Kerry said Wednesday that he made clear in several phone calls with Turkey’s foreign minister in recent days that mere allegations of wrongdoing against Fethullah Gulen would not meet USA extradition requirements.
The Board of Higher Education issued the directive on Wednesday.
Turkey’s main religious body has banned all imams in the country from holding services for military personnel killed supporting the attempted coup on July 15.
In the first air strikes since the coup, F-16 fighter jets late Tuesday hit targets of the PKK in the Hakurk region of northern Iraq, said the state-run Anadolu news agency, quoting security sources.
The agency said the schools are linked to Gulen, a former ally of Erdogan who lives in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania and has denied accusations that he engineered the coup attempt that was quashed by security forces and protesters loyal to the government.
Anadolu is also reporting that two Turkish military officers detained for alleged involvement in the thwarted coup have fled from a military hospital in Istanbul where they were being treated.
Turkey has repeatedly named Gulen as the instigator of its turmoil and demands his extradition from the United States.
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The government says 312 people were killed in the coup, including 145 civilians, 60 police, three soldiers and 104 plotters. Earnest added that a decision on whether to extradite would be made under a longstanding treaty between the two countries.
