Tag Archives: Turkey

Turkey’s Erdogan stages mass rally in show of strength

People wave Turkey's national flags during the Democracy and Martyrs Rally in Istanbul

By Humeyra Pamuk and Nick Tattersall

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – President Tayyip Erdogan told a rally of more than one million people on Sunday that July’s failed coup would be a milestone in building a stronger Turkey, defying Western criticism of mass purges and vowing to destroy those behind the putsch.

The “Democracy and Martyrs’ Rally” at the Yenikapi parade ground, built into the sea on the southern edge of Istanbul, was a show of strength by Erdogan, who has been angered by European criticism of his combative response to the coup and by U.S. reluctance to hand over the man he accuses of masterminding it.

Banners in a sea of red Turkish flags read “You are a gift from God, Erdogan” and “Order us to die and we will do it”. It was the first time in decades that opposition leaders joined a rally in support of the government, with pockets of secularists, nationalists and others alongside his core Islamist supporters.

“That night, our enemies who were rubbing their hands in anticipation of Turkey’s downfall woke up the next morning to the grief that things would be more difficult from now on,” Erdogan said of the July 15 abortive coup, drawing parallels to times past when Turkey was occupied by foreign forces.

“From now on, we will examine very carefully who we have under us. We will see who we have in the military, who we have in the judiciary, and throw the others out of the door.”

The parade ground, built to hold more than a million people, was overflowing, with the streets of surrounding neighborhoods clogged by crowds. One presidency official put the numbers at around five million and the event was broadcast live on public screens at smaller rallies across Turkey’s 81 provinces.

Since the coup bid, Turkish authorities have suspended, detained or placed under investigation tens of thousands of people, including soldiers, police, judges, journalists, medics and civil servants, prompting concern among Western allies that Erdogan is using the events to tighten his grip on power.

Erdogan vowed to rid Turkey of the network of U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, whose followers in the security forces, judiciary and civil service he accuses of orchestrating the attempted power grab and of plotting to overthrow the state.

Erdogan said he would approve the restoration of the death penalty if parliament voted for it, a move which would sink any hopes of European Union membership. Shrugging off EU concerns, he said much of the rest of the world had capital punishment.

Gulen – an ally of Erdogan in the early years after his Islamist-rooted AK Party took power in 2002 – has denied any involvement in the coup, which came at a critical time for a NATO “frontline” state facing Islamist militant attacks from across the border in Syria and an insurgency by Kurdish rebels.

In a rare appearance at a public rally, military chief Hulusi Akar said the “traitors” behind the plot would be punished and he thanked civilians for their role in putting it down. Many of the more than 240 people killed on July 15 were civilians who tried to prevent the takeover of power.

The leader of the main secularist opposition, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, said a “new door of compromise” had been opened and that politics must be kept out of the mosques, courthouses and barracks. “There is a new Turkey after July 15,” he said.

“FREEDOM OR DEATH”

Erdogan, a polarizing figure seen by opponents as intolerant of dissent, invited the heads of the secularist and nationalist opposition parties to address the crowds in a display of national unity in defiance of Western criticism.

“We’re here to show that these flags won’t come down, the call to prayer won’t be silenced and our country won’t be divided,” said Haci Mehmet Haliloglu, 46, a civil servant who traveled from the Black Sea town of Ordu for the rally.

“This is something way beyond politics, this is either our freedom or death,” he said, a large Turkish flag over his shoulder and a matching baseball cap on his head.

Turkey’s top Muslim cleric and chief rabbi also attended. But the pro-Kurdish HDP, the third-largest party in parliament, was not invited due to its alleged links to Kurdish militants, prompting anger on social media from its supporters.

The brutality of July 15, in which rogue soldiers commandeered fighter jets, helicopters and tanks, shocked a nation that last saw a violent military power grab in 1980. Even Erdogan’s opponents saw his leadership as preferable to a successful coup renewing the cycle of military interventions that dogged Turkey in the second half of the 20th century.

“Erdogan has been brutal and unfair to us in the past, but I believe he has now understood the real importance of the republic’s values,” said Ilhan Girit, 44, a musician and CHP supporter, carrying a flag of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of the modern secular republic.

A convoy of nationalists on motorbikes passed as he spoke.

Such solidarity may not last. There are already opposition concerns that the restructuring of the military lacks parliamentary oversight and is going too far, with thousands of soldiers discharged, including around 40 percent of generals.

WESTERN CRITICISM

The extent of the purges in Turkey, which has NATO’s second largest armed forces and aspires to membership of the European Union, has drawn criticism in the West.

In comments published on Sunday, the leader of Germany’s liberal Free Democrats said he saw parallels between Erdogan’s behavior and the aftermath of the Reichstag fire in 1933, portrayed by the Nazis as a Communist plot against the government and used by Adolf Hitler to justify massively curtailing civil liberties.

Turkish officials have angrily rejected suggestions that the purges are out of proportion, accusing Western critics of failing to grasp the magnitude of the threat to the Turkish state and of being more concerned about the rights of coup plotters than the brutality of the events themselves.

Amid the cooling of ties with the West, Erdogan is due to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday in St Petersburg for talks intended to end a period of tension after Turkey downed a Russian fighter jet near the Syrian border last November.

“At the talks with my friend Vladimir, I believe, a new page in bilateral relations will be opened. Our countries have a lot to do together,” Erdogan told the TASS news agency in an interview published on Sunday.

In Washington on Sunday several hundred people clad in red and waving Turkish flags gathered in front of the White House in support of Erdogan and to demand that U.S. President Barack Obama deport Gulen to Turkey.

“He (Erdogan) has made some mistakes but he is not a dictator,” said Okan Sakar, 35, a Turkish tax inspector currently studying in the United States.

(Additional reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu in Istanbul, Caroline Copley in Berlin, Maria Kiselyova in Moscow, Jason Lange in Washington; Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Ralph Boulton and Gareth Jones)

Turkey’s Erdogan vows to cut off revenues of Gulen-linked businesses

Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan addresses the audience during a meeting at the Presidential Palace in Ankara

By Daren Butler and Ayla Jean Yackley

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan vowed on Thursday to choke off businesses linked to the U.S.-based cleric he blames for an attempted coup, describing his schools, firms and charities as “nests of terrorism” and promising no mercy in rooting them out.

Business is the arena in which the network of Fethullah Gulen is still the strongest, Erdogan said in a speech from his palace broadcast live. Those who “financed the shooters” would be treated like the coup plotters themselves, he said.

Erdogan accuses Gulen of harnessing an extensive network of schools, charities and businesses, built up in Turkey and abroad over decades, to infiltrate state institutions and build a “parallel structure” that aimed to take over the country.

The 75-year-old cleric denies the allegations.

More than 60,000 people in the military, judiciary, civil service and education have been detained, suspended or placed under investigation for alleged links to his “Hizmet” (Service) movement since the July 15 coup, prompting fears among Western allies and rights groups of a witch-hunt.

“They have nothing to do with a religious community, they are a fully-fledged terrorist organization … This cancer is different, this virus has spread everywhere,” Erdogan told heads of chambers of commerce and bourses attending his speech.

“The business world is where they are the strongest. We will cut off all business links, all revenues of Gulen-linked business. We are not going to show anyone any mercy,” he said, describing the detentions so far as just the tip of the iceberg.

ERDOGAN CRACKDOWN

Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania since 1999, has denied plotting against the state and has condemned the coup attempt, in which rogue soldiers commandeered warplanes, helicopters and tanks, bombing parliament and seizing bridges in a bid to seize power.

More than 230 people were killed, excluding soldiers who were involved in the coup attempt. Many of the dead were civilians.

Before the failed coup, the Turkish authorities had already seized Islamic lender Bank Asya, taken over or closed several media companies and detained businessmen on allegations of funding the cleric’s movement.

Although the bulk of the purges in the wake of the putsch have been in the security forces, judiciary and public sector, private firms have also been affected.

The head of research at a brokerage had his license revoked over a report to investors analyzing the coup plot, while Turkish Airlines, arguably the country’s most recognized brand, has fired 211 staff over alleged Hizmet links.

The chairman and several executives from Boydak Holding, a prominent family-run conglomerate with interests from furniture to energy, have also been detained, as has the chief of Turkey’s biggest petrochemicals firm Petkim.

“KEEPING A COOL HEAD”

The coup fallout risks affecting some multinational firms operating in Turkey, including delaying investment decisions.

German energy group EWE, which employs around 700 people in Turkey, said around a dozen managers had left its subsidiary in recent days. A spokesman declined to give a reason but said the company, while not questioning its engagement with Turkey, was monitoring the political and economic situation very carefully.

Siemens Chief Executive Joe Kaeser told reporters on Thursday he had summoned the head of the group’s Turkish operations to a supervisory board meeting a day earlier to get a first-hand account of events inside the country.

The German industrial group employs 3,000 people in Turkey.

“It’s a question of keeping a cool head and keeping an eye on how things develop, because things are developing which are not really desirable in a modern democracy,” he told a conference call to discuss the company’s earnings.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Turkey would introduce a package of reforms to encourage investment including removing some taxes, as the government looks to shore up confidence. But investors remain cautious.

“Investment plans are being put on ice. Given the current emergency legislation new investment is not advisable,” said Anton Boerner, head of Germany’s BGA trade association, adding concern about Turkey’s credit ratings had also made investment more expensive.

Germany is the biggest foreign investor in Turkey with investments totaling more than $13.3 billion since 1980, according to the German foreign ministry.

STRAINS IN RELATIONS

The coup and its aftermath have strained Turkey’s relations with the United States, which has said it will extradite Gulen only if Turkey provides evidence of his wrongdoing, and Europe, some of whose politicians have raised concern that Erdogan is using events to further tighten his grip on power.

Turkey’s EU Affairs Minister criticized comments by Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern suggesting talks on Turkey joining the European Union should be broken off, saying the EU’s founding values remain a reference for Ankara.

Kern said on Wednesday he would start a discussion among European heads of government to quit talks on Turkish accession because of its democratic and economic deficits.

“It’s disturbing that his statements are similar to those of the far right… Criticism is surely a democratic right but there has to be a difference between criticizing Turkey and being against Turkey,” EU minister Omer Celik told reporters.

A senior EU official involved in accession talks with Turkey said Kern’s comments were “too early” and part of “the domestic debate” in Austria, where the far-right Freedom Party attracts around a third of votes in opinion polls. But he did not entirely dismiss them.

“The EU should not, obviously, pursue the road of ending the accession talks with Turkey, but we will have to if Turkey keeps sliding into semi-authoritarianism,” the official said.

The purges of Gulen’s suspected followers this week extended to the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (Tubitak) and have also included private and military hospitals, which are now under the supervision of the health ministry.

The number of staff purged at Turkey’s Football Federation rose to more than 110 on Thursday, while four actors and two directors at municipal theaters in Istanbul were also suspended, according to broadcaster NTV.

(Additional reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu in Istanbul, Shadia Nasralla in Vienna, Francesco Guarascio in Brussels, Georgina Prodhan and Caroline Copley in Frankfurt; writing by Nick Tattersall; editing by Peter Graff)

Turkish police raid science council as crackdown widens

Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan addresses the audience during a meeting at the Presidential Palace in Ankara, Turkey,

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkish police have raided the offices of the national science research council, an official said on Wednesday, as authorities widen an investigation into followers of the U.S.-based cleric accused of masterminding last month’s coup attempt.

Broadcaster NTV earlier reported that police raided the offices of the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (Tubitak) on Wednesday and detained “many” people.

However, a Tubitak official told Reuters the raid had happened on Sunday, adding he did not have any details about the number of detentions. He declined to comment further.

Tubitak funds science research projects in universities and the private sector and employs more than 1,500 researchers, according to its website.

More than 60,000 people in the military, judiciary, civil service and education have been detained, suspended or placed under investigation following the July 15 coup attempt, prompting fears that President Tayyip Erdogan is using the events to crack down on dissent.

Turkey’s government says the coup attempt was orchestrated by followers of Fethullah Gulen, a Muslim cleric who has lived in self-imposed exile in the United States since 1999. Gulen denies the charge and has condemned the coup.

More than 230 people, not including coup plotters, died and thousands were wounded as mutinous soldiers commandeered fighter jets, helicopters and tanks in the failed attempt to topple the government.

(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk and Can Sezer; Writing by David Dolan; Editing by Nick Tattersall)

Erdogan says Turkey’s coup script was ‘written abroad’

Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan

By Ece Toksabay and Nick Tattersall

ANKARA/ISTANBUL, Turkey (Reuters) – President Tayyip Erdogan accused the West of supporting terrorism and standing by coups on Tuesday, questioning Turkey’s relationship with the United States and saying the “script” for an abortive putsch last month was “written abroad”.

In a combative speech at his palace in Ankara, Erdogan said charter schools in the United States were the main source of income for the network of U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, who he says masterminded the bloody July 15 putsch.

“I’m calling on the United States: what kind of strategic partners are we, that you can still host someone whose extradition I have asked for?” Erdogan said in a speech to local representatives of multinational firms operating in Turkey.

“This coup attempt has actors inside Turkey, but its script was written outside. Unfortunately the West is supporting terrorism and stands by coup plotters,” he said in comments which were met with applause, and broadcast live.

The 75-year-old Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania since 1999, denies any involvement in the failed coup. President Barack Obama has said Washington will only extradite him if Turkey provides evidence of wrongdoing.

The fallout from the abortive coup, in which more than 230 people were killed as mutinous soldiers commandeered fighter jets, helicopters and tanks in a bid to seize power, has deepened a rift between Ankara and its Western allies.

Erdogan and many Turks have been frustrated by U.S. and European criticism of a crackdown in the wake of the putsch, accusing the West of greater concern about the rights of the plotters than the gravity of the threat to a NATO member state.

More than 60,000 people in the military, judiciary, civil service and education have been detained, suspended or placed under investigation since the coup, prompting fears that Erdogan is pursuing an indiscriminate crackdown on all forms of dissent and using the situation to tighten his grip on power.

“If we have mercy on those who carried out this coup attempt, we will be the ones to be pitied,” he said.

The leader of the main secularist opposition CHP, which has condemned the coup and been supportive of the government’s reaction so far, said a state of emergency declared in its aftermath now risked being used to make sweeping changes to the security forces without appropriate parliamentary support.

“There is no doubt that the law on emergency rule was issued in line with the constitution. But there is concern that its application is being used to exceed the goal,” Kemal Kilicdaroglu told a meeting of the CHP.

“It may be necessary to restructure the state, undoubtedly, but this subject must go before parliament.”

AN ARMY “LIKE SADDAM’S”

Erdogan has issued two decrees dismissing around 3,000 members of NATO’s second-biggest armed forces since the coup, including more than 40 percent of generals. He has also shut down military high schools and brought force commanders under tighter government control.

The nationalist opposition, which like the CHP has so far largely backed the government’s response to the coup and has vowed to support any move to reintroduce the death penalty for plotters, also criticized the military overhaul.

Its leader Devlet Bahceli said the changes risked turning Turkey’s army into a force like that of former Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein or former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

“If the traditions and principles of the Turkish Armed Forces are trampled upon in an effort to fix its structural problems, it will resemble Saddam’s or Gaddafi’s army,” Bahceli told members of his MHP, describing the changes as rushed.

He criticized a move to have force commanders report directly to the defense minister, saying it would “ruin the chain of command”.

In his palace speech, Erdogan said the military overhaul was necessary to prevent Gulenists attempting another coup.

“If we didn’t take this step, the members of this Gulenist organization (FETO) would take over the military, and they would point the planes and tanks bought with the taxes of our people against them,” he said. “There is no turning back.”

Erdogan told the representatives of global firms listening to his speech that he understood the sensitivities of the business community, vowing reforms to make foreign investment more attractive and saying the economic outlook was improving again after a fluctuation following the coup.

Customs and Trade Minister Bulent Tufenkci was earlier quoted earlier as saying the cost of the coup attempt was at least 300 billion lira ($100 billion).

“Orders from overseas have been canceled. People couldn’t come because the coup plotters made Turkey look like a third-world country,” the Hurriyet daily quoted him as saying.

WARRANTS FOR ARMY MEDICS

The coup and the resulting purges have raised concern about Turkey’s reliability as a NATO ally and its ability to protect itself against the threat from Islamic State militants in neighboring Syria and Kurdish militants in its southeast. Both have carried out suicide bombings in Turkey over the past year.

“It is essential for national security that the Turkish Armed Forces are restructured to face new threats and to expend all of their energy on their fundamental activities,” Prime Minister Binali Yildirim told a meeting of the ruling AK Party.

Yildirim said civilian authorities had taken over factories and shipyards that had been under the control of the military as part of the ongoing restructuring.

Warrants to detain 98 doctors at the prestigious GATA military hospital in Ankara were also issued on Tuesday, an official said, over their alleged role in enabling Gulen’s “Hizmet” network to infiltrate the higher ranks.

“GATA is crucial because this is where fitness and health reports are issued. There is strong evidence suggesting (Hizmet) members infiltrated this institution to slow down the career progress of their rivals within the military and fast track their supporters,” the official said.

Erdogan also pledged to strengthen Turkey’s intelligence agencies and flush out the influence of Gulen, whose grip on the security apparatus he blamed for the lack of intelligence in the run-up to the coup. The MIT intelligence agency has already suspended 100 staff and Erdogan has suggested bringing it under the control of the presidency.

Erdogan accuses Gulen of harnessing his extensive network of schools, charities and businesses, built up in Turkey and abroad over decades, to create a “parallel state” that aimed to take over the country.

Pakistan promised Turkey’s visiting foreign minister on Tuesday it would investigate schools Ankara wants shut for alleged links to Gulen but stopped short of agreeing to close them. Turkey has had similarly non-committal responses from countries including Germany, Indonesia and Kenya to its requests in recent weeks.

($1 = 2.9827 liras)

(Additional reporting by Akin Aytekin, Ayla Jean Yackley and Daren Butler in Istanbul, Ercan Gurses and Gulsen Solaker in Ankara, Isla Binnie in Rome, Asad Hashim in Islamabad; writing by Nick Tattersall; editing by Philippa Fletcher)

Turkey captures commandos who tried to seize Erdogan

Turkish gendarmeries escort fugitive commandos who were involved in a bid to seize President Erdogan during a failed coup attempt last month

By Daren Butler and Yesim Dikmen

ISTANBUL, Turkey (Reuters) – Turkish special forces captured a group of rebel commandos who tried to seize or kill President Tayyip Erdogan during a failed coup, and a government minister said plotters would “never see God’s sun as long as they breathe”.

Drones and helicopters pinpointed the location of the 11 fugitive commandos in forested hills around the Mediterranean resort of Marmaris after a two-week manhunt, an official said on Monday. They were part of a group that attacked a hotel where Erdogan was holidaying on the night of the July 15 coup bid.

The operation took place overnight, after the government tightened its control over the military by dismissing over 1,000 more soldiers, widening the post-coup purges of state institutions that have targeted tens of thousands of people.

The coup attempt and resulting purges have shocked Turkey, which last saw a violent military power grab in 1980, and have shaken confidence in the stability of a NATO member key to the U.S.-led fight against Islamic State and to stopping illegal migration to Europe.

Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci said coup plotters would bitterly regret trying to overthrow Turkey’s democracy, in words reflecting the depth of anger among the thousands of Turks who have attended rallies to condemn the coup night after night.

“We will make them beg. We will stuff them into holes, they will suffer such punishment in those holes that they will never see God’s sun as long as they breathe,” Zeybekci was quoted by the Dogan news agency as telling an anti-coup protest in the western town of Usak over the weekend.

“They will not hear a human voice again. ‘Kill us’ they will beg,” he said.

Erdogan blames followers of U.S.-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen for the coup bid and has vowed to rid state institutions of his influence. But the extent of the purges, and suggestions that the death penalty could be reintroduced, have sparked concern in Western capitals and among rights groups.

Gulen, who lives in self-imposed exile in the United States, has denied involvement.

Erdogan and his government have been angered by the response of Western allies to the abortive coup and its aftermath, accusing them of being more concerned about the rights of the plotters than the gravity of the threat Turkey has faced.

The United States’ top military official, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford, was due to meet Prime Minister Binali Yildirim in Ankara on Monday after visiting the Incirlik air base in southern Turkey, used by the U.S.-led coalition for bombing raids in Syria.

SOLDIERS DISMISSED

More than 230 people were killed in the attempted coup, many of them civilians, and more than 2,000 injured. Erdogan was almost killed or captured, officials close to him have said, an outcome which could have tipped Turkey into conflict.

Since the coup bid, more than 60,000 people in the military, judiciary, civil service and education have been detained, suspended or placed under investigation, leading to concern among NATO allies about the scale of the purges. Around 40 percent of Turkey’s generals and admirals have been dismissed.

Nearly 1,400 more members of the armed forces were dismissed and the top military council was stacked with government ministers on Sunday, moves designed by Erdogan to tighten civilian control over the military.

“Our aim is that we set up such a system that nobody within the armed forces would ever consider a coup again,” Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus told a news conference in Ankara, explaining the latest reforms. He said a restructuring of Turkey’s intelligence structures may follow.

Similar “democracy demonstrations” to the one attended by Zeybekci, rallies called for by Erdogan, have been held in squares night after night across the country of nearly 80 million since the coup.

The foreign ministry summoned the charge d’affaires at the German embassy on Monday after German authorities prevented Erdogan from addressing such a rally by Turks in Cologne on Sunday by video link, a senior official in Ankara said.

The top German court ruled against the live link amid concerns that political tensions in Turkey could spill over into Germany, home to Europe’s largest Turkish diaspora.

“It would be absolutely unacceptable for Germany to even mention democracy, the rule of law, human rights and freedoms to Turkey after this point,” Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag wrote in a furious response on Twitter.

Turkey’s crackdown after the failed coup has made European leaders even more uneasy about their dependence on the country to help stem illegal migration, in return for which Turks have been promised visa-free travel to the European Union.

Turkey will have to back out of the agreement if the EU does not deliver visa liberalisation as promised, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu was quoted as telling Germany’s daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

COMMANDOS SEIZED

Having been tipped off that he was in danger on the night of the coup bid, Erdogan had fled the hotel in Marmaris by the time the rogue commandos arrived in an attempt to capture him.

After a manhunt involving around 1,000 members of the security forces, the 11 were captured – dressed in camouflage and trying to cross a stream – after a tip-off from a man who spotted them as he was hunting wild boar, the Dogan agency said.

Video footage showed a dozen or so anti-coup demonstrators jeering the 11 detained soldiers, some of whom had swollen faces and bruises. The demonstrators waved Turkish flags and chanted “Traitors! We want the death penalty!”

More than 1,700 military personnel were dishonourably discharged last week for their role in the putsch, which saw a faction of the military commandeer tanks, helicopters and warplanes in an attempt to topple the government.

The new wave of army expulsions and the overhaul of the Supreme Military Council (YAS), announced in the official state gazette on Sunday, came hours after Erdogan said he also planned to shut down existing military academies and put the armed forces under the command of the Defence Ministry.

According to the gazette, the 1,389 military personnel targeted on Sunday were dismissed for suspected links to the Islamic preacher Gulen.

Erdogan has said that Gulen harnessed his extensive network of schools, charities and businesses, built up in Turkey and abroad over decades, to create a “parallel state” that aimed to take over the country.

The cleric has however condemned the coup.

“If there is anything I told anyone about this verbally, if there is any phone conversation, if one-tenth of this accusation is correct … I would bend my neck and would say, ‘They are telling the truth. Let them take me away. Let them hang me,'” Gulen said in an interview with CNN broadcast on Sunday.

(Additional reporting by Gareth Jones and Humeyra Pamuk in Istanbul, Ercan Gurses in Ankara; Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Gareth Jones and Pravin Char)

Turkey shakes up armed forces, U.S. says purges harming cooperation

Turkish soldiers detain Staff Sergeant Erkan Cikat, one of the missing military personnel suspected of being involved in the coup attempt, in Marmaris, Turkey

By Tulay Karadeniz and Seda Sezer

ANKARA/ISTANBUL (Reuters) – President Tayyip Erdogan angrily rejected Western criticism of purges under way in Turkey’s military and other state institutions after a failed coup, suggesting some in the United States were on the side of the plotters.

The purges target supporters of U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, accused by Ankara of masterminding the July 15-16 coup. Turkey’s Western allies condemned the coup, in which at least 246 people were killed and more than 2,000 injured, but they have been rattled by the scale of the crackdown.

The director of U.S. national intelligence, James Clapper, said on Thursday the purges were harming the fight against Islamic State in Syria and Iraq by sweeping away Turkish officers who had worked closely with the United States.

The head of U.S. Central Command, General Joseph Votel, said he believed some of the military figures whom the United States had worked with were in jail.

Speaking at a special forces headquarters in Ankara badly damaged by violence on the night of the coup, Erdogan on Friday condemned Votel’s remarks.

“Instead of thanking this country which repelled a coup attempt, you take the side of the coup plotters. The putschist is in your country already,” Erdogan said, referring to Gulen, who denies any involvement in the coup attempt.

“They (the critics) say … ‘we worry for (Turkey’s) future’. But what are these gentlemen worried about? Whether the numbers of detained and arrested will increase? If they are guilty, they will increase,” said Erdogan, who narrowly escaped capture and possible death on the night of the coup.

Ankara wants Washington to extradite Gulen, once a close ally of Erdogan and now an arch foe, to Turkey.

Asked about the U.S. comments on losing Turkish interlocutors, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim echoed Erdogan’s feisty tone: “This is a confession. If the Gulenist generals are their friends, they are in the same class.”

Yildirim also said Turkey would shut down an air base near Ankara which served as a hub for the coup plotters as well as all military barracks used by them.

MILITARY SHAKE-UP

Turkey announced late on Thursday a major shake-up of its armed forces, NATO’s second largest, with the promotion of 99 colonels to the rank of general or admiral and the dishonorable discharge of nearly 1,700 military personnel over their alleged roles in the coup.

About 40 percent of all generals and admirals have been dismissed since the coup.

Defence Minister Fikri Isik told broadcaster NTV on Friday the shake-up in the military was not yet over, adding that military academies would now be a target of “cleansing”.

The purges have also hit government ministries, schools and universities, the police, civil service, media and business.

The number of public sector workers removed from their posts since the coup attempt now stands at more than 66,000, including some 43,000 people in education, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported on Friday.

Interior Minister Efkan Ala said more than 18,000 people had been detained over the failed coup, and that 50,000 passports had been canceled. The labor ministry said it was investigating 1,300 staff over their possible involvement.

Erdogan says Gulen harnessed his extensive network of schools, charities and businesses, built up in Turkey and abroad over decades, to create a secretive “parallel state” that aimed to take over the country.

Erdogan’s critics say he is using the purges to crack down indiscriminately on dissent and to tighten his grip on power.

With long land borders with Syria and Iraq, Turkey is a central part of the U.S.-led military operation against Islamic State. As home to millions of Syrian refugees, it is also the European Union’s partner in a deal reached last year to halt the biggest flow of migrants into Europe since World War Two.

Turkey hosts U.S. troops and warplanes at Incirlik Air Base, from which the United States flies sorties against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria. Those air operations were temporarily halted following the coup attempt.

Attempting to reassure the United States, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Friday that Turkey’s armed forces, “cleansed” of their Gulenist elements, would prove more “trustworthy … and effective” allies against Islamic State.

Nevertheless, there is a growing anti-U.S. mood in Turkey which is likely to harden further if Washington refuses to extradite Gulen.

Several hundred flag-waving protesters staged a peaceful protest march near the Incirlik base on Thursday, chanting “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest) and “Damn the U.S.A”, the pro-government Yeni Safak newspaper reported. The protesters burned a U.S. flag.

“POWER POISONING”

The crackdown on Gulenists pressed on unabated on Friday.

In the central city of Kayseri, a stronghold of Erdogan’s ruling Islamist-rooted AK Party, police detained the chairman of furniture-to-cables conglomerate Boydak Holding and two company executives as part of the investigation into the “Gulenist Terror Group”,  Anadolu reported.

Prosecutors in the Aegean coastal city of Izmir issued orders to detain 200 police on Friday as part of the investigation targeting Gulenists, the Dogan news agency said.

In the Netherlands, a spokeswoman for the Gulenist community said supporters feared for their safety after dozens of death threats and acts of arson and vandalism in Dutch towns and cities in the past two weeks. Saniye Calkin said supporters in neighboring Germany were reporting similar incidents.

Germany is home to Europe’s largest Turkish diaspora, while the Netherlands also has around half a million ethnic Turks.

Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania since 1999, again maintained his innocence during an interview with Italy’s Corriere della Sera newspaper, saying he had himself suffered from previous coups in Turkey.

Asked why his once-warm ties with Erdogan and the AK Party had turned sour, Gulen said: “It appears that after staying in power for too long, (they) are suffering from power poisoning.”

Gulen, whose Hizmet (Service) movement stresses the need to embrace scientific progress and inter-faith dialogue, said he still strongly backed Ankara’s bid to join the EU, saying this would buttress democracy and human rights in Turkey.

(Additional reporting by Daren Butler and Nick Tattersall in Istanbul, Orhan Coskun in Ankara, Steve Scherer in Rome, Anthony Deutsch in Amsterdam; Writing by Gareth Jones; Editing by Nick Tattersall)

Turkey dismisses military, shuts media outlets, crackdown deepens

A supporter holds a flag depicting Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan during a pro-government demonstration in Ankara, Turkey

By Tulay Karadeniz, Gulsen Solaker and Can Sezer

ANKARA/ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkey on Wednesday deepened a crackdown on suspected followers of a U.S.-based cleric it blames for a failed coup, dismissing nearly 1,700 military personnel and shutting 131 media outlets, moves that may spark more concern among its Western allies.

So far, tens of thousands of people – including police, judges and teachers – have been suspended or placed under investigation since the July 15-16 coup, which Turkey says was staged by a faction within the military loyal to the Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen.

Gulen, who lives in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania but whose movement has a wide following in Turkey where it runs a large network of schools, has denied any involvement in the failed putsch.

Western governments and human rights groups, while condemning the abortive coup in which at least 246 people were killed and more than 2,000 injured, have expressed concern over the extent of the crackdown, suggesting President Tayyip Erdogan may be using it to stifle dissent and tighten his grip on power.

Erdogan, who narrowly escaped capture and possibly death on the night of the coup, denies the crackdown has wider aims and says the Gulen movement threatened democracy by attempting to build a “parallel state” within the military, media and civil service.

On Wednesday, the military dishonorably discharged 1,684 of its personnel, a Turkish government official said, citing their role in the failed coup. Of those, 149 were generals and admirals, said the official, who requested anonymity. Data show that would represent roughly 40 percent of all generals and admirals in Turkey’s military.

Broadcaster CNN Turk has reported that more than 15,000 people, including around 10,000 soldiers had been detained so far over the coup, citing the interior minister. Of those, more than 8,000 were formally arrested pending trial, it said.

In addition, the government said in its official gazette that three news agencies, 16 television channels, 45 newspapers, 15 magazines and 29 publishers have been ordered shut down.

These moves, which follow the closure of other media outlets with suspected Gulenist ties as well as the detention of journalists will further stoke concerns among rights groups and Western governments about the scale of Erdogan’s post-coup purges.

The United States said on Wednesday it understood Turkey’s need to hold perpetrators of the attempted coup to account, but said the detention of more journalists was part of a “troubling trend”.

JOURNALISTS DETAINED

Turkey ordered another 47 journalists detained on Wednesday, singling out columnists and other staff of the now defunct Zaman newspaper, the government official said. Authorities in March shut down Zaman, widely seen as the Gulen movement’s flagship media organization.

“The prosecutors aren’t interested in what individual columnists wrote or said,” said the official, who requested anonymity. “At this point, the reasoning is that prominent employees of Zaman are likely to have intimate knowledge of the Gulen network and as such could benefit the investigation.”

However, the list includes journalists, such as Sahin Alpay, known for their leftist activism who do not share the religious worldview of the Gulenist movement. This has fueled the concerns that the investigation may be turning into a witch-hunt of the president’s political opponents.

The media reported on Monday that arrest warrants had been issued for 42 other journalists, 16 of whom have so far been taken into custody.

Alpay is a former official of Turkey’s left-leaning, secularist main opposition CHP party. The Dogan news agency said police raided his home in Istanbul early on Wednesday and detained him after a 2-1/2-hour search of the property.

Separately, Turkey’s capital markets board said it had revoked the license of the head of research at brokerage AK Investment and called for him to face charges over a report he wrote to investors analyzing the coup.

SPIRIT OF UNITY

Erdogan’s ruling Islamist-rooted AK Party and opposition parties, usually bitterly divided, have demonstrated a rare spirit of unity since the abortive coup and are seeking consensus on constitutional amendments partly aimed at “cleansing” the state apparatus of Gulenist supporters.

A senior AK Party official said on Wednesday the parties were discussing plans to increase parliamentary control of a key state body that appoints judges and prosecutors.

Also on Wednesday a government official said Turkish special forces were still hunting in the hills around the Mediterranean resort of Marmaris for a group of 11 commandos who are believed to have tried to capture or kill Erdogan on the night of the coup, when he was on holiday in the area.

In testimony provided following his detention, Major General Mehmet Disli, the brother of a prominent ruling party lawmaker, strongly denied allegations that he was involved in the coup, saying he had been forced by the plotters to mediate with the chief of the military’s General Staff on July 15.

General Staff head Hulusi Akar was held hostage for hours by the plotters, but refused to join their coup.

Erdogan, a popular but polarizing figure who has dominated Turkish politics for more than a decade, will chair an annual meeting of the Supreme Military Council (YAS) on Thursday after vowing to restructure the armed forces following the coup.

The General Staff said 35 planes, including 24 fighter jets, 37 helicopters, 74 tanks and three ships had been used by the coup plotters, NTV reported. It put the number of soldiers from the Gulenist network involved in the attempted putsch at 8,651, or about 1.5 percent of the armed forces.

In Greece, authorities on Wednesday postponed hearings for eight Turkish soldiers who sought asylum there after fleeing Turkey. The men – three majors, three captains and two sergeant majors – deny being involved in the coup, but Ankara has branded them “traitors” and is demanding their extradition.

Erdogan has also signaled the country might restore the death penalty in the wake of the failed coup, citing strong public support for such a move, though the European Union has made clear this would scupper Turkey’s decades-old bid to join the bloc.

PIVOT TO MOSCOW

Turkish officials have complained of what they perceive as a lack of support from the EU over the coup, while European leaders have urged Ankara to show restraint and a sense of proportion in bringing those responsible to justice.

The attempted coup has also tested Turkey’s ties with its NATO ally the United States, where Gulen has lived in self-imposed exile since 1999. Responding to Turkey’s request for Gulen’s swift extradition, Washington has said Ankara must first provide clear evidence of his involvement in the coup.

Gulen lives in a secluded compound in Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains, but Erdogan has reason to worry about the reclusive cleric’s reach inside Turkey. In 2013, his followers in the police and judiciary opened a corruption probe into business associates of Erdogan, then prime minister, who denounced the investigation as a foreign plot.

The strains with the EU and the United States have coincided with Turkey’s renewed push to repair ties with Russia, badly hurt last November by the Turkish downing of a Russian jet involved in military operations in Syria, and Moscow’s subsequent imposition of trade sanctions.

On Wednesday, Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek said talks with Russian officials this week on improving bilateral relations had taken place “in a very positive atmosphere”.

Simsek, respected by Western investors as a safe pair of hands in guiding the Turkish economy, also said he saw no reason to downgrade Turkey’s credit rating following the coup.

Standard & Poor’s recently revised the country’s sovereign debt outlook to negative from stable and Moody’s has said it will review the rating for a possible downgrade.

(Additional reporting by Ercan Gurses, Yesim Dikmen and Orhan Coskun in Ankara and Ayla Jean Yackley, Asli Kandemir, Humeyra Pamuk and Nick Tattersall in Istanbul; writing by Gareth Jones and David Dolan; editing by Peter Millership, Peter Graff and G Crosse)

Turkey detains more journalists in clampdown on cleric’s followers

Turkish journalist Nazli Ilicak is escorted by a police officer and her relatives after being detained and brought to a hospital for a medical check in Bodrum

By Daren Butler and Orhan Coskun

ISTANBUL/ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey ordered another 47 journalists detained on Wednesday, part of a large-scale crackdown on suspected supporters of U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, who is accused by Ankara of masterminding a failed military coup.

Turkey has suspended, detained or placed under investigation more than 60,000 soldiers, judges, teachers, journalists and others suspected of ties to Gulen’s movement since the July 15-16 coup, which was staged by a faction within the military.

Turkey’s army General Staff on Wednesday put the number of soldiers belonging to the Gulen network who took part in the coup attempt at 8,651, roughly about 1.5 percent of the armed forces, broadcaster NTV reported.

Gulen has denied any involvement in the failed coup.

Turkey’s capital markets board said on Tuesday it had revoked the license of the head of research at brokerage AK Investment and called for him to face charges over a report he wrote to investors analyzing the July 15 coup.

Western governments and human rights groups, while condemning the abortive coup in which at least 246 people were killed and more than 2,000 injured, have expressed alarm over the extent of the crackdown, suggesting President Tayyip Erdogan may be using it to stifle dissent and tighten his grip on power.

The detention of journalists ordered on Wednesday involved columnists and other staff of the now defunct Zaman newspaper, a government official said. Authorities in March shut down Zaman, widely seen as the Gulen movement’s flagship media organization.

“The prosecutors aren’t interested in what individual columnists wrote or said,” said the official, who requested anonymity. “At this point, the reasoning is that prominent employees of Zaman are likely to have intimate knowledge of the Gulen network and as such could benefit the investigation.”

However, the list includes journalists, such as Sahin Alpay, known for their leftist activism who do not share the religious world view of the Gulenist movement. This has fueled concerns that the investigation may be turning into a witch-hunt of the president’s political opponents.

On Monday, media reported that arrest warrants had been issued for 42 other journalists, 16 of whom have so far been taken into custody.

Alpay is a former official of Turkey’s left-leaning, secularist main opposition CHP party. The Dogan news agency said police raided his home in Istanbul early on Wednesday and detained him after a 2-1/2 hour search of the property.

SPIRIT OF UNITY

Erdogan’s ruling Islamist-rooted AK Party and opposition parties, usually bitterly divided, have demonstrated a rare spirit of unity since the abortive coup and are seeking consensus on constitutional amendments partly aimed at “cleansing” the state apparatus of Gulenist supporters.

A senior AK Party official said on Wednesday they were discussing plans to increase parliamentary control of a key state body that appoints judges and prosecutors.

Also on Wednesday a government official said Turkish special forces were still hunting in hills around the Mediterranean resort of Marmaris for a group of 11 commandos thought to have tried to capture or kill Erdogan on the night of the coup.

Erdogan was holidaying in Marmaris at the time and only narrowly avoided capture before flying to Istanbul where he rallied his supporters who helped to defeat the coup plotters.

Erdogan, a popular but polarizing figure who has dominated Turkish politics for more than a decade, will chair an annual meeting of the Supreme Military Council (YAS) on Thursday after vowing to restructure the armed forces following the coup.

The military said 35 planes, including 24 fighter jets, 37 helicopters, 74 tanks and three ships had been used by the coup plotters, NTV reported.

In Greece, authorities on Wednesday postponed hearings for eight Turkish soldiers who sought asylum there after fleeing Turkey. The men – three majors, three captains and two sergeant majors – deny being involved in the coup but Turkey has branded them “traitors” and is demanding their extradition.

Erdogan has signaled Turkey might restore the death penalty in the wake of the failed coup, citing strong public support for such a move, though the European Union has made clear this would scupper Ankara’s decades-old bid to join the bloc.

PIVOT TO MOSCOW

Turkish officials have complained of what they perceive as a lack of support from the EU over the coup, while European leaders have urged Ankara to show restraint and a sense of proportion in bringing those responsible to justice.

The attempted coup has also tested Turkey’s ties with its NATO ally the United States, where Gulen has lived in self-imposed exile since 1999. Responding to Turkey’s request for Gulen’s swift extradition, Washington has said Ankara must first provide clear evidence of his involvement in the coup.

The strains with the EU and the United States have coincided with Turkey’s renewed push to repair ties with Russia, badly hurt last November by the Turkish downing of a Russian jet near Syria and Moscow’s subsequent imposition of trade sanctions.

On Wednesday, Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek said his talks with Russian officials this week on improving bilateral relations had taken place “in a very positive atmosphere”.

Simsek, respected by Western investors as a safe pair of hands in guiding the Turkish economy, also said he saw no reason to downgrade Turkey’s credit rating following the coup. Standard & Poor’s recently downgraded the sovereign debt outlook to negative from stable and Moody’s has said it will review the rating for a possible downgrade.

(Additional reporting by Ercan Gurses in Ankara and Ayla Jean Yackley and Nick Tattersall in Istanbul; Writing by Gareth Jones; Editing by David Dolan and Peter Millership)

Turkish troops hunt remaining coup plotters as crackdown widens

Turkish soldiers hunting for coup plotters

By Daren Butler and Orhan Coskun

ISTANBUL/ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkish special forces backed by helicopters, drones and the navy hunted a remaining group of commandos thought to have tried to capture or kill President Tayyip Erdogan during a failed coup, as a crackdown on suspected plotters widened on Tuesday.

More than 1,000 members of the security forces were involved in the manhunt for the 11 rogue soldiers in the hills around the Mediterranean coastal resort of Marmaris, where Erdogan was holidaying on the night of the coup bid, officials said.

Erdogan and the government blame U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen for orchestrating the attempted power grab and have launched a crackdown on his suspected followers. More than 60,000 soldiers, police, judges and civil servants have been arrested, suspended or put under investigation.

The religious affairs directorate removed another 620 staff including preachers and instructors in the Koran on Tuesday, bringing to more than 1,100 the number of people it has purged since the July 15 coup attempt.

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said two ambassadors, currently Ankara-based, had also been removed. Former Istanbul governor Huseyin Avni Mutlu was detained and his house searched.

“There is no institution which this structure has not infiltrated,” Erdogan’s son-in-law, Energy Minister Berat Albayrak, said in a televised interview, referring to Gulen’s network of followers.

“Every institution is being assessed and will be assessed,” he said. The response from the Turkish authorities would, he said, be “just” and would not amount to a witch-hunt.

Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in the United States since 1999, denies involvement and says the coup may have been orchestrated by Erdogan himself to justify a crackdown, a suggestion the president has roundly condemned.

In an op-ed in the New York Times, Gulen wrote that if members of his “Hizmet” (Service) network had been involved in the attempted coup they had betrayed his ideals, saying Erdogan’s accusations revealed “his systematic and dangerous drive towards one-man rule”.

Almost two thirds of Turks believe Gulen was behind the coup attempt, according to a poll released on Tuesday. The Andy-Ar survey showed nearly 4 percent blamed the United States or foreign powers and barely 2 percent blamed Erdogan.

On July 15 rogue soldiers commandeered fighters jets, helicopters and tanks to close bridges and try to seize airports. They bombed parliament, police headquarters and other key buildings in their bid for power. At least 246 people were killed, many of them civilians, and 2,000 wounded.

Around a third of Turkey’s roughly 360 serving generals have been detained since the abortive coup, more than 100 of them already charged pending trial.

Two Turkish generals based in Afghanistan were detained in Dubai, CNN Turk television said on Tuesday, citing diplomatic sources. It named them as Major-General Cahit Bakir, a commander of Turkish forces serving in the international NATO-led security force in Afghanistan, and Brigadier Sener Topuc, who oversees education and aid in the country.

MANHUNT

The 11 soldiers being hunted in Marmaris were among a group of commandos who attacked a hotel where Erdogan had been staying on July 15. Seven others were detained at a police checkpoint on Monday.

As the coup unfolded, Erdogan said the plotters had tried to attack him in Marmaris, bombing places he had been shortly after he left. He “evaded death by minutes”, an official close to him said at the time.

“It was an assassination attempt against Erdogan and this is being taken very seriously … Searches are continuing in Marmaris and the surrounding areas with around 1,000 members of the security forces,” another official said on Tuesday.

“The searches will continue uninterrupted until these people are found.”

Weapons, hand grenades and ammunition have been seized in the countryside around Marmaris in an operation based on information from detained soldiers, said Amir Cicek, governor of Mugla province where Marmaris is located.

Special forces police, commandos, the coast guard and the navy were all involved, Cicek said in a statement.

The scale of the arrests and suspensions following the coup attempt have raised concerns among rights groups and Western countries, which fear that Erdogan is capitalizing on it to muzzle dissent and remove opponents across the board.

Erdogan has declared a state of emergency, which allows him to sign new laws without prior parliamentary approval and limit rights as he deems necessary. In his first such decree, Erdogan ordered the closure of thousands of private schools, charities and foundations with suspected links to Gulen.

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.

“It is an unvarnished move for an arbitrary, mass and permanent purge of the civil service, prosecutors and judges, and to close down private institutions and associations without evidence, justification or due process,” she said.

Turkey wants the United States to extradite the cleric, but Washington has said it will do so only if there is clear evidence of wrongdoing.

In a sign of Washington’s concerns about the security situation, the U.S. Embassy in Ankara said on Tuesday employees’ family members had been authorized to leave voluntarily, citing a possible “increase in police or military activities and restrictions on movement” by the Turkish authorities.

(Additional reporting by Humeyra Pamuk, Ayla Jean Yackley and Gareth Jones in Istanbul, Ercan Gurses and Gulsen Solaker in Ankara; writing by Nick Tattersall; editing by Peter Graff)

Turkey detains 42 journalists; EU alarm sounds

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan reviews a guard of honour as he arrives to the Turkish Parliament in Ankara, Turkey, Ju

By Daren Butler and Seda Sezer

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkey ordered the detention of 42 journalists on Monday, broadcaster NTV reported, under a crackdown following a failed coup that has targeted more than 60,000 people, drawing fire from the European Union.

The arrests or suspensions of soldiers, police, judges and civil servants in response to the July 15-16 putsch have raised concerns among rights groups and Western countries, who fear President Tayyip Erdogan is capitalizing on it to tighten his grip on power.

EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker questioned Ankara’s long-standing aspiration to join the EU.

“I believe that Turkey, in its current state, is not in a position to become a member any time soon and not even over a longer period,” Juncker said on French television France 2.

Juncker also said that if Turkey reintroduces the death penalty – something the government has said it must consider, responding to calls from supporters at public rallies for the coup leaders to be executed – it would stop the EU accession process immediately.

Turkey abolished capital punishment in 2004, allowing it to open EU accession talks the following year, but the negotiations have made scant progress since then.

Responding to Juncker’s comments, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told Haberturk TV that Europe cannot threaten Turkey regarding the death penalty.

Erdogan has declared a state of emergency, which allows him to sign new laws without prior parliamentary approval and limit rights as he deems necessary. The government has said these steps are needed to root out supporters of the coup and won’t infringe on the rights of ordinary Turks.

NTV reported that among the 42 journalists subject to arrest warrants was well-known commentator and former parliamentarian Nazli Ilicak.

State-run Turkish Airlines said it had fired 211 employees, citing their links to a religious movement Erdogan has blamed for the attempted putsch.

U.S. CLERIC

Erdogan accuses U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, who has many followers in Turkey, of masterminding the coup plot. In his first decree since the state of emergency was declared, Erdogan ordered the closure of thousands of private schools, charities and foundations with suspected links to Gulen, who denies involvement in the coup.

Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in the United States since 1999, says the coup may have been orchestrated by Erdogan himself.

Turkey wants the United States to extradite the cleric. Washington has said it will do so only if there is clear evidence.

Foreign Minister Cavusoglu said that ties with Washington will be affected if it fails to extradite Gulen. He said he would hold meetings with political and judiciary officials during a coming visit to the United States.

Erdogan has accused Gulen, his former ally, of attempting to build a “parallel network” of supporters within the military, police, judiciary, civil service, education and media with the aim of toppling the state.

“They are traitors,” Erdogan told Reuters in an interview last week. He described Gulen’s network as “like a cancer” and said he would treat them like a “separatist terrorist organization” and root them out, wherever they may be.

Gulen denies the allegations.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on Saturday that authorities had taken around 13,000 people into custody over the coup attempt, including 8,831 soldiers. He promised they would have a fair trial.

The officers accused of staging the coup will stand trial in an Ankara district laden with symbolism for Turkey’s recent history – the scene of an army show of strength before a “post-modern coup” ousted its first Islamist-led government in 1997.

Rights group Amnesty International said it had received credible evidence of detainees being subjected to beatings and torture, including rape, since the coup attempt.

Erdogan has extended the maximum period of detention for suspects from four days to 30, a move Amnesty said increased the risk of torture or other maltreatment of detainees.

Photographs on social media have shown some of the detainees bruised and bandaged.

Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said on Twitter that Amnesty’s allegations were false, describing them as Gulenist “slander”. “Absolutely none of those detained were subject to torture or bad treatment during or after their detention,” he said.

ANKARA’S FRUSTRATION

Ankara is increasingly expressing frustration over what it says in the lack of solidarity from Western partners in the aftermath of the coup.

Western countries pledged support for democracy in Turkey, but have also expressed concern over the scale of subsequent purges of state institutions.

Last week, the minister for EU affairs chided Western countries for not sending any representatives to demonstrate their solidarity with Turkey since the failed coup.

On Sunday, presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin took to the opinion pages of the New York Times to defend Turkey’s actions.

“Several thousand military officers and their accomplices in law enforcement and the judiciary have been suspended or arrested for having links to the coup. Their removal from public posts makes the Turkish government stronger and more transparent,” he wrote, adding that at least 1,200 rank-and-file soldiers have been released so far.

He also dismissed claims that Erdogan had orchestrated the coup in order to launch a crackdown.

“The claim that this was a fake coup is no more credible than the laughable claim that the 9/11 attacks were orchestrated by the United States.”

(Additional reporting by Humeyra Pamuk in Istanbul; Ece Toksabay in Ankara and Geert De Clercq in Paris; Writing by David Dolan; Editing by Michael Georgy and David Stamp)