Turkey: Erdogan to meet Putin Aug. 9 in Russia

Violations of rights and freedoms by the Erdogan government after the coup attempt mean “moving away automatically from the West, which hasn’t yet decided how much to tolerate in order not to alienate” Turkey, while Russian Federation isn’t concerned about such abuses and can show it’s ready to be friends, he said. And Turkey is appointing 5,000 new judges and prosecutors to replace officials who have been dismissed, it said.

On July 15, there was a coup attempt in Turkey that was suppressed the following day.

Following the failed coup, which martyred at least 246 people and left thousands of others wounded, Turkey sent the U.S.an official request for Gulen’s extradition. Zaman, which was linked to Fethullah Gulen’s religious movement, was raided by police and seized by the government in March.

Earlier in the week, Turkey issued another 42 arrest warrants for journalists which London-based rights group Amnesty International described as a “draconian clampdown on freedom of expression”. “If we go out of the norms of the law, then we are no different to the coup-plotters”. “If they have direct ties to the coup, that’s a different matter”. Since than it has become clear that perpetrators were a small group of soldiers loyal to Fethullah Gulen and his FETO terrorist organization.

He said he supported Turkish appeals for the United States to extradite Gulen, though Sabah, a pro-government newspaper, criticized him for a speech at a rally Sunday in which he condemned the coup attempt but did not mention Gulen by name.

“Turkey’s president is blackmailing the United States by threatening to curb his country’s support for the worldwide coalition against the Islamic State”.

Still, there are deep divisions between followers of Erdogan, who advocates a pious Muslim lifestyle, and secular Turks who think the president wants to impose Islam on the country.

“For the sake of worldwide efforts to restore peace in turbulent times, as well as to safeguard the future of democracy in the Middle East, the United States must not accommodate an autocrat who is turning a failed putsch into a slow-motion coup of his own against constitutional government”, Gulen said. Relations warmed after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan apologized in June.