Turkey will grant early release to some 38,000 prisoners who committed crimes before July 1, Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said Wednesday, amid reports of prison overcrowding after the failed coup. He can now select any general as military chief.
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Erdogan administration has claimed that nearly 4,500 companies “linked with Gulen” had been seized and closed.
Germany and Turkey have strong historic links, with the largest Turkish diaspora in the world following decades of “guest worker” schemes aimed at reviving the German economy following the end of the Second World War. Under another move, the TIB telecoms authority will be closed.
As part of countrywide purge of the army, police, and the courts that also expanded to universities and schools, the Erdogan government either suspended or detained almost 50,000 people in the wake of the insurrection.
Meanwhile its board member Asli Erdogan – a prominent writer – was detained in a police raid on her home, Turkish media said.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has vowed to choke off businesses linked to the US -based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom he accuses of being the mastermind behind the July 15 coup attempt, describing his schools, firms and charities as “nests of terrorism”.
Gulen, a reclusive cleric who has lived in the USA since 1999, has been repeatedly accused of running a “parallel state” since a corruption scandal embroiling then premier Erdogan and several of his ministers erupted in 2013.
Turkey classified Gulen’s movement as a terrorist network in July 2015. It names a total 111 defendants, including 13 people who are already in custody. “They need to free up some space”.
Alongside tens of thousands of civil servants suspended or dismissed, more than 35,000 people have been detained in the purge.
USA officials have said that the United States has a formal process for dealing with extradition requests and that Turkey must provide solid evidence of Gulen’s involvement.
“As a result of Ankara’s domestic and foreign policy that has been Islamised step-by-step above all since 2011, Turkey has developed into the central platform of action for Islamist groups in the Middle East region”, the document goes on.
The Turkish government has also demanded the Unites States to extradite Gulen, something Washington have refused so far.
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Incensed over a perceived lack of Western sympathy over the coup attempt, Erdogan has revived relations with Russian Federation, a detente Western officials worry may be used by both leaders to pressure the European Union and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. He also said the government is considering an extraordinary meeting of the Supreme Military Council this month as it plans an overhaul of the military to expand civilian control over Turkey’s armed forces, which have toppled three governments since 1960.
