That number included close to 10,000 green/grey (official) passports held by civil servants, the government said.
Advertisement
The EU has expressed concern over the imposition of a state of emergency in the wake of the coup bid, though the criticism has not been well received by Erdogan.
On Wednesday, the president admitted there had been “intelligence failures”, saying he learned about the coup from his brother-in-law. An global lawyers’ group warned Turkey against using it to subvert the rule of law and human rights, pointing to allegations of torture and ill-treatment of people held in the mass roundup.
Turkey, a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ally, is a key player in the US -led coalition fighting the Islamic State group.
In this file photo, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim speaks to reporters in the capital, Ankara.
Erdogan said 10,410 people had so far been detained with 4,060 of them remanded in custody, including more than 100 generals and admirals. “We have to assess that demand from the standpoint of law, and not according to what the European Union says”, Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag told broadcaster CNN Turk.
“This is not a declaration of martial law”, he said. Without any doubt, the democratic structure of the state will be protected and the rule of law will continue to be upheld. “We hope that this is not the position of their governments”, he said.
The unprecedented crackdown is part of a series of mass purges of the armed forces, police, judiciary and education system, targeting followers of US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Erdogan has accused of masterminding the failed coup.
Ankara has hit out at its old ally the United States, accusing it of protecting Gulen and demanding his immediate extradition.
Obama on Friday flatly rejected reports that the United States had prior intelligence, calling such suggestions “unequivocally false”.
“Any reports that we had any previous knowledge of a coup attempt, that there was any USA involvement in it, that we were anything other than entirely supportive of Turkish democracy are completely false, unequivocally false”, Obama said during a joint appearance at the White House with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto.
“I had a chance to talk to President Erdogan this week and reiterated what we said from the earliest reports that a coup was being attempted in Turkey, and that is that we strongly reject any attempt to overthrow democracy in Turkey, that we support the democratically-elected government there”, he said.
Erdogan has basked in the support of jubilant crowds who took to the streets of Istanbul Thursday night, packing one of the bridges spanning the Bosphorus and closing it to traffic.
“I said that to President Erdogan”.
Advertisement
The government says 246 pro-government people – forces and civilians – died during the attempted coup, and at least 24 coup plotters were also killed.
