The state-run Anadolu agency reported on Monday that Mr. Ozturk had confessed, though other outlets later contradicted the story.
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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.
Ties between the United States and one of its most crucial military allies, Turkey, were rapidly fraying Monday as Washington criticized the widespread purges that have followed an abortive coup d’état, and Turkey’s Prime Minister said there would be “a questioning of our friendship” if the US didn’t extradite the man Ankara believes masterminded the failed putsch. Turkey boasts NATO’s second-largest standing military, after the USA, and its efforts are seen as crucial to both combatting the so-called Islamic State that occupies parts of neighbouring Syria and Iraq, as well as to controlling the flow of refugees trying to reach Europe.
Erdogan has often accused Gulen of trying to overthrow the government, and Turkey has demanded his extradition, labeling his movement a terrorist organization and putting him on trial in absentia.
On Monday, according to Anadolu, prosecutors entered Incirlik Air Base in southern Turkey, which is key to the US -led campaign against the Islamic State group. Or does the USA know something about the coup rebels that we do not? After failing in every attempt, he went for the last option, which was to stage a coup through the military staff he had installed in the ranks of the Armed Forces.
During the uprising by a faction of the military, warplanes fired on government buildings and tanks rolled into the streets of major cities before the rebellion was put down by forces loyal to the government and civilians who took to the streets. Martial law was imposed across the country for three years following a successful military coup in 1980. He spoke after a meeting with cabinet ministers and top security advisers. Several European officials have said such a move would be the end of Turkey’s attempts to join.
Among those detained are at least 118 generals and admirals, accounting for a third of the general-rank command of the Turkish military, according to Turkish state broadcaster TRT.
With Western allies expressing alarm over fears Ankara that could reinstate the death penalty in response to Friday’s dramatic coup bid, General Akin Ozturk appeared in court, looking haggard and with his ear bandaged.
At nightfall, thousands of flag-waving people rallied in Istanbul’s Taksim Square, Ankara’s Kizilay Square and elsewhere.
Erdogan has remained in Istanbul ever since he dramatically flew back on Saturday to the city from the holiday resort of Marmaris where he was staying when the coup struck.
The government moved swiftly in the wake of the coup to shore up its power and remove those perceived as enemies. In addition to Incirlik, they searched the Air Force Academy premises and residences in Istanbul, Anadolu reported. Other media reports said police, military police and members of the coast guard also were removed from duty.
Erdogan said the state of emergency, lasting three months, would allow his government to take swift and decisive measures against supporters of the coup and was allowed under the constitution. The reason why all political parties have come together, and why the media and the people resisted the coup plotters was the need to keep democracy as the main element for a hopeful future for Turkey.
Seventy-five-year-old Gulen, who lives in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania but has a network of supporters within Turkey, has condemned the attempt and denied any role in it. A peeved Erdogan said that he was “saddened” by such criticism. He strongly denies the government’s charges.
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“We would be disillusioned and would question our friendship if our friends were to say to us ‘Show us the evidence.’ despite all the efforts.to eradicate the elected government and the national will of a country”, he said, while adding that the Justice Ministry was preparing documents to send to the United States.
