The head of Turkey’s Gendarmerie gave dramatic testimony Monday of his abduction by a trusted aide the night of the July 15 failed coup, and even a brush with death, speaking to Ankara prosecutors. “We don’t want a witch hunt”, Kilicdaroglu told NTV, a private broadcaster.
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“The United States must not accommodate an autocrat who is turning a failed putsch into a slow-motion coup of his own against constitutional government”, Gulen wrote. He said the situation was “very risky for every journalist” and that government warnings to reporters to be careful would lead to self-censorship.
“It was a positive meeting for contributing to the normalisation” after the coup, the CHP said in a statement after the two-hour-forty minute meeting.
Government officials say the crackdown is meant to root out loyalists of Fethullah Gulen, a dissident cleric who lives in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania.
Violations of rights and freedoms by the Erdogan government after the coup attempt mean “moving away automatically from the West, which hasn’t yet decided how much to tolerate in order not to alienate” Turkey, while Russian Federation isn’t concerned about such abuses and can show it’s ready to be friends, he said.
The measure went “well beyond the legitimate aim of promoting accountability for the bloody July 15 coup attempt”, said Emma Sinclair-Webb, Turkey director at Human Rights Watch. Critics of Erdogan fear he is using the abortive coup to wage an indiscriminate crackdown on dissent. “In addition, we have begun the process of drafting a new Constitution that is the goal and responsibility of all political parties”, Yildirim said. Other prominent journalists hit with warrants include the commentator Bulent Mumay and the news editor of Fox TV in Turkey, Ercan Gun. The government took over Bugun last year, changed its editorial direction and then shut it down, one of several media outlets to come under fire in Turkey in recent years.
Another wanted journalist is Busra Erdal, a former columnist and legal reporter for the daily Zaman newspaper, taken over by authorities in March for alleged links to Gulen’s movement.
There were concerns about media freedom in Turkey well before the coup attempt.
Gulen has repeatedly denied any knowledge of the coup attempt. We believe that his authoritarian and intolerant style of rule and his inordinate ambition to rule Turkey unchallenged and in perpetuity by turning his ceremonial office into a powerful executive presidency fuelled the grievances that led to this coup attempt, unjustified though it was.
In an opinion piece in The New York Times, meanwhile, Gulen once again wrote he had nothing to do with the coup and urged the United States to reject Turkey’s extradition request.
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In the AP interview at his party’s headquarters, Kilicdaroglu cautioned that authorities should act within the law and pursue only those linked to the coup plot.
