Thousands jailed after failed Turkey coup

“The measure is to protect basic rights and freedoms”, he said following National Security Council and cabinet meetings in Ankara.

Authorities have rounded up close to 9,000 people – including 115 generals, 350 officers and some 4,800 other military personnel for alleged involvement in the takeover.

Yildirim said the justice ministry had sent a dossier to US authorities on Gulen, whose religious movement blends conservative Islamic values with a pro-Western outlook and who has a network of supporters within Turkey.

“We need to be more sensitive”, he said, “Relations between our countries are based on interests, not feelings”.

According to The Guardian, the president defended the ensuing clampdown, in which thousands have been arrested or sacked, media outlets shut down and the reintroduction of the death penalty discussed, while saying that citizens should not have “the slightest concern with regards to democracy, rule of law, fundamental rights and freedoms”. A total of 50,000 civil service employees have been fired in the purges, which have reached Turkey’s national intelligence service and the prime minister’s office.

In other moves against education, Turkey demanded the resignations of 1,577 university deans and halted foreign assignments for state-employed academics. “I am certain they will continue as a committed and strong North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ally”, Stoltenberg told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of a meeting of defense officials from more than 30 countries involved in the coalition against Islamic State.

“I don’t think we have come to the end of it yet”.

In a telephone call to Erdogan on Tuesday, his first to the Turkish president since the coup attempt, President Obama “strongly condemned” the insurrection and “lauded the Turkish people’s resolve against this violent intervention and their commitment to democracy”.

Erdogan on Wednesday told al-Jazeera some of those who have been detained after the attempted coup have started confessing and providing what the Turkish leader said is information that links the coup attempt to Gulen. Erdogan’s spokesman said a formal extradition request was being prepared. Last Friday, a military faction failed in a coup attempt.

A Turkish parliament security man stands guard next to the broken yellow copper doors laid on the ground at the entrance of the assembly hall at the parliament building which was attacked by the Turkish warplanes during the failed military coup last Friday. Erdogan insisted the downgrade “does not reflect the realities of the Turkish economy”.

Işik had planned to attend a ministerial meeting that Carter is hosting Wednesday in Washington on countering Islamic State, but now says he must remain in Turkey. His philosophy mixes a mystical form of Islam with staunch advocacy of democracy, education, science and interfaith dialogue.

The government said it has fired almost 22,000 education ministry workers, mostly teachers, taken steps to revoke the licenses of 21,000 other teachers at private schools and removed or detained half a dozen university presidents in a campaign to root out alleged supporters of a US -based Muslim cleric blamed for the failed insurrection.

Turkey has repeatedly named Gulen as the instigator of its turmoil and demands his extradition from the United States.

Erdogan and Gulen were once allies, but had a falling out over 2013 corruption investigations in Turkey, which the Turkish leader blamed on Gulen.

European criticism won’t stop Turkey taking steps it deems necessary after last week’s failed coup, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said. Turkkan reportedly said he “started to regret it after I saw the bombs explode and the civilians being harmed”.