Pictures on social media showed detained soldiers stripped to the waist, some wearing only underpants, handcuffed and lying packed together on the floor of a sports hall where they were being held in Ankara.
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When the fight against Gulen movement started thousands of police were moved sideways into roles where they would not harm the government.
The interior ministry said nearly 9,000 people, including nearly 8,000 police but also municipal governors and other officials, had also been dismissed in a widening purge.
It said more than 7,500 people had been detained across the country, including about 100 police and 6,030 soldiers.
The coup plotters sent warplanes firing on key government installations and tanks rolling into major cities on Friday night. Yildirim rejected that demand.
“We also firmly urge the government of Turkey to maintain calm and stability throughout the country”, Kerry said.
“At this stage there could even be a questioning of our friendship”, Yildirim added. Officials previously said the overall death toll was more than 290. He was able to fly into Istanbul in the early hours of Saturday, after rebel pilots had his plane in their sights but did not shoot it down.
President Erdogan told a crowd on Sunday that Turkey would consider reinstating the death penalty.
At nightfall, thousands of flag-waving people rallied in Istanbul’s Taksim Square, Ankara’s Kizilay Square and elsewhere. “That’s what the people say”, he said.
Turkey gave up the death penalty in 2004 as part of a programme of reforms required to become a candidate to join the EU.
It would take a parliamentary decision in the form of a constitutional measure to make the death penalty an option, Erdogan said. The reason for the discrepancy was not immediately clear.
In Turkey, the opposition chose to democratically stand against the coup, putting the interests of the country before the party’s.
In light of the mass detentions, Europe and the United States have expressed concern that Turkey is abandoning the rule of law.
Both the European Union and the USA need Turkey right now and are limited in how far they can push the criticism.
The top American diplomat said Turkey must “uphold the highest standards for the country’s democratic institutions and the rule of law”. “We will certainly support bringing the perpetrators of the coup to justice but we also caution against a reach that goes well beyond that”. White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said the US would follow procedures in a decades-old extradition treaty and called Turkish charges that the USA was harboring Gulen “factually incorrect”.
European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini also called on Ankara to avoid steps that would damage the constitutional order.
Kerry has spoken with Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu three times since the coup attempt, Kerry said.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said that “the rule of law must prevail”. Saudi Arabia has taken steps to better respond to abuse, but has done so within the framework of guardianship.
Erdogan has urged citizens to remain on the streets even after the defeat of the coup attempt, in what the authorities describe as a “vigil” for democracy. Turkey is expected to officially seek his extradition. Some high-ranking military officials involved in the plot have fled overseas, he said.
The preacher’s followers have a powerful presence in Turkish society, including the media, police and judiciary, and Erdogan has long accused him of running a “parallel state” in Turkey.
Turkey has suspended almost 8 000 police across the country, widening a major purge on suspected supporters of a failed army coup aimed at overthrowing President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
“People I think are wondering, look, if this guy Erdogan, who has these very authoritarian tendencies, doesn’t get the country back in order, it’s a risky place and don’t invest there”, he told CNBC’s “Squawk Box”.
Supporters describe Gulen as a moderate Muslim cleric who advocates interfaith dialogue.
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Erdogan said a “terror group” led by Gulen had “ruined” the armed forces, that its members were being arrested in all military ranks, and that a purge of this “virus” would continue.
