Istanbul: Turkish authorities on Sunday pressed on with a ruthless crackdown against suspects in the failed coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with 6,000 people including generals detained in action that has sparked international concern. The crackdown is however, not restricted to the military and news reports said prosecutors have also issued arrest warrants for a total of 2,745 judges and prosecutors across Turkey.
The country’s justice minister Bekir Bozdag added that the number of arrests would rise. According to the government, 161 civilians and regular troops lost their lives when a group within the army sought to overthrow the authorities by seizing key strategic points in Istanbul and Ankara late on Friday. Over 100 coup plotters were also killed during the coup bid that was the biggest challenge to Erdogan’s rule in his 13 years as prime minister and now president.
World leaders including US President Barack Obama have strongly condemned the attempted putsch but also urged Turkey to respect the rule of law in its aftermath, especially after pictures emerged showing the rough treatment of some coup plotters when arrested. NTV television said 34 generals of various grades had been detained so far. They include senior figures like Erdal Ozturk, commander of the third army and the commander of the Malatya-based second army, Adem Huduti.
Turkish authorities have made clear they will show no mercy in the wake of the coup, accusing the plotters of acting on behalf of Erdogan’s arch enemy, the US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen. Gulen, a Muslim cleric living in self-imposed exile in the United States, said on Saturday he had no involvement in an attempted coup in Turkey, and suggested it could have been staged by the president himself. “Some leaders stage... false suicide attacks to strengthen their hand, such people may come up with such scenarios.As a believer, I cannot make false accusations,” he said in a rare interview on Saturday. The preacher moved to the United States in 1999, before he was charged with treason in his native country.
Senior Turkish figures have, however, claimed the United States has been secretly involved in the coup bid. Turkey’s labour minister Suleyman Soylu had reportedly suggested the US was covertly behind the revolt, a claim US Secretary of State John Kerry angrily denied. State Department spokesman John Kirby said Kerry had called Turkey Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu for a second day running to promise US support in probing the putsch.
