Turkey’s top judicial body, the HSYK, dismissed 2,745 judges on Saturday, according to Turkey’s Anadolu news agency. He said 2,839 plotters were detained.
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But he said Turkey’s government would have to prove Fethullah Gulen’s wrongdoing.
President Barack Obama on Friday urged all sides in Turkey to support the democratically elected government in Turkey, a key North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ally. -Turkish tensions escalated Saturday after a quashed coup in Turkey, as the country’s leader bluntly demanded the extradition of a US -based cleric he accused of orchestrating the violence. He said a change of government should only come through a legal, constitutional process.
Yildirim, who was to appear before the crowd but failed, said the country was again fully under government control.
The Gulen movement denied involvement in the coup, but U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Saturday was quoted as saying the United States would support investigations to determine who instigated the attempted coup and where its support originates. “In the meantime, U.S. Central Command is adjusting flight operations in the counter-ISIL campaign to minimize any effects on the campaign”. “And obviously, we invite the government of Turkey, as we always do, to present us with any legitimate evidence that withstands scrutiny”. “And the United States will accept that and look at it and make judgments about it appropriately”.
“As someone who suffered under multiple military coups during the past five decades, it is especially insulting to be accused of having any link to such an attempt”. Ten members of Turkey’s highest administrative court were detained and arrest warrants were issued for 48 administrative court members and 140 members of Turkey’s appeals court, state media reported.
Fighter jets buzzed overhead, gunfire erupted outside military headquarters and vehicles blocked two major bridges in Istanbul. An announcer read a statement on the orders of the military that accused the government of eroding the democratic and secular rule of law.
Forces loyal to Erdogan largely crushed the last remnants of the coup on Saturday as he launched a purge of the armed forces to tighten his grip on power.
Damascus regularly accuses Ankara of supporting “terrorist groups” fighting regime forces in Syria, while Erdogan has repeatedly called for the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
In images broadcast on CNN-Turk, dozens of soldiers walked among tanks with their hands held up, surrendering to government forces. Some flag-waving people climbed onto the tanks.
Egyptians woke up Saturday to find some newspapers announcing Erdogan’s ouster, even as the strongman loathed by Cairo quashed the coup attempt.
A Blackhawk military helicopter with seven Turkish military personnel and one civilian landed in the Greek city of Alexandroupolis, where the passengers requested asylum.
Erdogan has cooperated with Washington in the fight against Islamic State, but relations have been rocky with USA criticism of Erdogan’s increasing authoritarianism, Turkey’s support for Islamist opposition groups fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and the slow pace in sealing Turkey’s border with Syria to foreign fighters.
Kerry also said that USA military cooperation with its North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ally has been unaffected by the turmoil.
Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook confirmed that power had been cut to the Incirlik air base in southern Turkey, near the Syria border.
The closing of the airspace over Incirlik effectively grounded USA aircraft and drones that have been instrumental in the campaign to crush Islamic State in Syria, including supporting drives by Syrian Kurds and moderate Arabs, who are being advised by US special forces, to seize the militant-held city of Manbij and Raqqa, the “capital” of the caliphate declared by Islamic State. “I think in the short term this failed coup plot will strengthen President Erdogan, particularly in his drive to turn his office into a strong and centralized executive presidency”.
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Turkey’s military staged three coups between 1960 and 1980 and pressured Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan, a pious mentor of Erdogan, out of power in 1997.
