Turkey enters first day of state of emergency

“However, whatever is necessary for the nation’s peace and stability will be done”, he said.

Ankara said it would also suspend the European Convention on Human Rights, pointing out that France had taken similar action and declared a state of emergency after jihadist attacks.

It also comes as concerns grow over the scale of the ensuing crackdown that has targeted thousands of judges, civil servants, teachers, police officers and soldiers, and amid widespread fears of growing authoritarianism on the part of Erdogan. Of those, 317 are members of Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party.

He insisted the state of emergency will be different to those imposed in the country previously and that the rule of law will be upheld. Governors will also play a more effective role during this period in terms of both security and local governments. We have to be patient… But I don’t think it will take long.

The representative said that Arabs are sharing the Turkish people their delight just like they shared their pain when they came to this country, escaping from war.

Over 20,000 people have been dismissed from their jobs in state education and a similar number in the private sector have been stripped of their licences.

“The grain of truth, which we don’t deny, is that yes, there are some sympathizers in every government institution”.

Erdogan has said the state of emergency will counter threats to Turkish democracy. The cleric has denied any knowledge of the attempted coup.

Turkey has requested Gulen’s extradition from the United States. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Thursday, “Given the tumultuous nature of events in Turkey over the last six days, that answer is we’ll learn in the weeks ahead”.

The real challenge, then, is: are western powers able to accept and deal fairly with a leader who expresses the will of his people and his country’s interests, which may not necessarily coincide with their will and their interests? “We are strategic partners”.

The extra powers, to restrict freedom of movement and other rights, were needed “to remove swiftly all the elements of the terrorist organisation involved in the coup attempt”, Erdogan said. Turkey abolished capital punishment in 2004 but President Tayyip Erdogan has told crowds of supporters chanting for the death penalty that such demands may be discussed in parliament. The parliament approved the emergency measure a day later.

However, analysts have suggested that the coup authors – whether Gulenists or secularists – may have brought forward plans because they suspected Mr Erdogan was about to purge the military anyway. “The world is not simply the European Union”.

“We’re very concerned that this clears the way to a more restrictive path for the authorities who have already frankly behaved in a way that has disregarded the rule of law”.

SAYLORSBURG, Pennsylvania (AP) – The influential Muslim cleric lives quietly on a gated 26-acre compound in the Pocono Mountains, where he prays, works, meets admirers and watches from afar as terrorism accusations that have landed him on Turkey’s most-wanted list unfold in court.

Speaking at his palace in Ankara, which was targeted during the coup attempt, he said a new putsch was possible but would not be easy because authorities were now more vigilant. Initially my reaction was disbelief…

On arriving in Istanbul: “When we arrived in Istanbul, of course there were some hard moments there as well…”

Mr Erdogan said 246 people other than the coup plotters were killed in the abortive attempt to overthrow the government, with 2,185 injured. “But in this incident even they said they were on the side of the president, because [a pro-coup] direction would doom them and be the end of them”.