Turkey on Thursday called on Russian Federation to carry out joint operations against Islamic State (IS) in Syria, after crucial talks between President Vladimir Putin and Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan aimed at ending a diplomatic crisis.
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More than a million Turks gathered in Istanbul on Sunday for an anti-coup rally headed by President Erdoğan.
Earlier, Turkish president’s spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said that a Turkish delegation will visit Russian Federation to discuss the Syrian crisis. Greek authorities had established that they had left Greece for Italy aboard a ferry on the night of August 6, together with their families.
Turkish government accuses the US-based cleric and businessman of masterminding last month’s failed coup attempt.
Turkey’s foreign minister has clarified comments on conducting joint operations with Russian Federation against the Islamic State group in Syria, saying Turkey wanted greater cooperation with Moscow, not joint strikes.
The official said that 5,685 people remain in detention, waiting to see a judge.
More than 16,000 people are under formal arrest and around 6,000 are in custody without charge in Turkey. More than 16,000 people have been formally arrested – a lot of them soldiers – while 5,000 others are in custody pending investigations. “There have been escapees among our diplomats as well”.
Saudi Arabia had also helped in returning a Turkish military attache from Kuwait, he said, warning that a deadline of Wednesday for those called back had “run out”.
Syrian activists said airstrikes targeting the Islamic State group’s de factor capital of Raqqa on Thursday killed at least 20 civilians in a new round of bombardment that came as Turkey called on Russian Federation to carry out joint operations against IS.
Turkish Interior Minister Efkan Ala was quoted on Thursday as saying that nearly 76,100 civil servants had now been suspended.
The Greek foreign ministry said the two attaches fled before Ankara asked them to return to Turkey, and before officials cancelled their diplomatic passports.
A U.S. Navy official told reporters more than 100 Turkish military personnel are in the United States – some at the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation base and some taking part in exchanges at U.S. military institutions.
“Turkey’s military attache in Bosnia was not called to Ankara, he is doing his business as usual”, a press officer from the embassy said on Thursday, adding that there was only one Turkish military attache in Bosnia. Gulen himself has repeatedly denied any involvement. “It wasn’t the cook or the servants”, Kurtulus Aykan, acting head of Turkey’s mission to the Netherlands, was quoted as saying.
A Syrian rescue worker and opposition activists said Thursday that a Syrian government airstrike on an opposition-held district in the embattled city killed at least two people in what was alleged to have been a chlorine gas attack. I suspected nothing. That’s the talent of this movement.
Russian Federation supported Erdogan after a July coup attempt, in contrast to USA and European concerns about the massive crackdown that followed.
After Erdogan and Putin met for the first time earlier this week since Turkish jets shot down a Russian military aircraft last November, the two countries announced new committees to discuss the Syrian crisis, which were to meet for the first time in Moscow on Thursday.
“Our main expectation from the United States is Gulen’s return”, Cavusoglu said. PARALLEL STATEErdogan accuses Gulen of staging the attempted putsch, harnessing his extensive network of schools, charities and businesses built up in Turkey and overseas over decades to create a “parallel structure”.
Trudeau said the State Department doesn’t comment on or handle asylum cases.
Turkey is one of NATO’s largest military powers, second only to the United States.
An EU-Turkey deal to halt the influx of migrants and refugees via Greece may already be in jeopardy.
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He repeated, however, Turkey’s demand that the US extradite Gulen.
