Turkey’s government has said the defeated coup, which left 240 people martyred and almost 2,200 injured, was organized by followers of Fetullah Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in the US state of Pennsylvania since 1999, and his FETO network.
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Turkey also wants other nations to crack down on Gulen-affiliated organisations, including schools and businesses. He didn’t elaborate on the number of people who would be implicated.
Ankara attributed the German assessment of Turkish state policy referenced in the leak to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK ), and the organization’s network in Germany, as the foreign ministry demanded an explanation from Berlin.
He urged the USA to expedite the extradition of Fethullah Gulen, the leader of parallel state, also known as the Fethullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), to Turkey.
Celik’s comments were published on the same day as Turkey’s post-coup purge was widened to include the business community.
In all, more than 35,000 people – including judges, academics and journalists – have been detained for questioning, with more than 17,000 of those people formally arrested.
Prosecutors issued arrest warrants for 187 suspects including the CEOs of leading companies.
Other firms targeted included the fashion company Eroglu and the bakery Gulluoglu Baklava.
Turkish authorities detained 29 inspectors on Friday from the BDDK banking watchdog for “irregular inspections”, broadcaster CNN Turk reported, in what appeared to be the latest round-up related to the failed July 15 coup.
Rizanur Meral, the president of the Turkish Confederation of Businessmen and Industrialists (Tuskon), was among the suspects wanted by authorities, the private Dogan news agency reported.
Gulen vehemently rejects the charges but Turkey has embarked on a relentless drive to expel what Erdogan calls his “virus” from all public institutions.
It said the suspects are charged with “financing the terror organization”, “being member of the terror organization” and “forming and running a terror organization”.
A total of 74 scholars had been detained so far in both operations, media said.
But since the failed putsch, in which rogue soldiers seized tanks and fighter jets in their attempt to overthrow the government, rights groups have documented horrific abuses in Turkish detention centres, including sports centres and courthouses.
Many Western allies worry that Erdogan is giving himself, even more, power, and is using the coup as an excuse to crush dissidence.
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The discharges started just hours after the government issued a decree for the conditional release of some 38,000 prisoners under Turkey’s three-month long state of emergency that was declared following the coup.
