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Updated 7.45pm
TURKEY HAS WIDENED its massive post-coup purge to the media and schools after vowing to root out supporters of an exiled Islamic cleric it accuses of orchestrating the attempted power grab.
Global alarm is mounting over the retaliatory action since Friday’s failed putsch, which has already seen a massive crackdown in the military, police and judiciary and thousands detained.
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Turkey had sent dossiers to the United States to back up its demand for the extradition of reclusive preacher Fethullah Gulen, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s sworn enemy who lives in exile in Pennsylvania.
“We will pull them (Gulen supporters) out by the roots like a razor blade,” he said.
And the authorities acted swiftly – cancelling licences for radio and television stations said to be linked to the so-called Gulenists.
The government also suspended more than 15,000 state education employees allegedly linked to the “Fethullah Terrorist Organisation” – its name for Gulen’s network.
Turkey’s education board also demanded the resignation of almost 1,600 deans from private and state universities.
Erdogan spokesman Ibrahim Kalin defended the mass detentions, saying it was a legal process and that suspects would face charges of “treason and attempting to change the constitutional order”.
Death penalty
This comes after the jailing of two dozen generals, including a former airforce chief, on suspicion of planning the coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as Ankara stepped up a relentless crackdown despite international concern.
Erdogan has denounced the coup, which left more than 300 dead on all sides, as a treacherous bid to oust him from power devised from the Pennsylvania compound of his arch-enemy, the US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen.
But with the authorities detaining over 7,500 people so far in a massive legal crackdown, Turkey’s EU and NATO allies have urged Ankara to keep the rule of law in place.
Erdogan’s suggestion that the death penalty in Turkey could be reinstated has sent shudders through Europe and sparked warnings that such a move would be the nail in the coffin of its already embattled EU bid.
Late last night, an Ankara court placed under arrest 26 former generals suspected of planning the coup, including former Turkish air force chief General Akin Ozturk, whom some Turkish media have painted as the mastermind of the plot.
The generals have now been jailed ahead of their trials, a date for which has not been sent.
They have been charged with crimes including seeking to overturn the constitutional order, leading an armed group and seeking to assassinate the president.
In his statement to prosecutors, Ozturk denied he was the coup ringleader.
“I am not the person who planned or led the coup. Who planned it and directed it, I do not know,” state-run news agency Anadolu quoted him as saying.
‘Betrayal of Turkish nation’
Turkey’s treatment of the coup suspects has alarmed its allies especially after the suspects were paraded before the media and shown being subjected to rough treatment.
Anadolu published images of Ozturk and other suspects on the stairs inside the Ankara courthouse, staring blankly into the camera with their hands tied behind their backs.
Ozturk has looked tired and haggard in images published by state media, with one of his ears heavily bandaged.
The interior ministry said almost 9,000 people, including nearly 8,000 police but also municipal governors and other officials, had also been dismissed in a widening purge.
Turkey has blamed last Friday’s coup bid on supporters within the military of Gulen, who Ankara accused of running a group it dubs the Fetullahci Terror Organisation.
Ankara has piled the pressure on Washington to extradite Gulen to face trial at home but US Secretary of State John Kerry said he wanted to see evidence and not allegations.
Gulen said in an interview with several media outlets including AFP at his compound in Pennsylvania that he has “no concerns personally” about the extradition request.
The United States “is a country of law,” added the cleric.
The rule of law reigns supreme here. I don’t believe this government will pay attention to anything that is not legally sound.
In addition to denying his own involvement, Gulen “condemned” the coup, saying: “I have always been against military interventions in domestic politics”.
He called the putsch attempt “treason, a betrayal of the Turkish nation.”
‘Cracking down not justice’
Turkey abolished the death penalty for all forms of crime in 2004 but the government now claims there is growing public pressure to reinstate it for the coup plotters.
Erdogan told CNN in his first media interview since the coup that he would approve any decision taken by parliament to reimpose the death penalty on Turkey’s books.
“There is a clear crime of treason,” he said.
But the EU – which Turkey has for years tried to join in a stalled accession process – warned of the consequences of such a move.
“Let me be very clear,” EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini said. “No country can become an EU state if it introduces the death penalty.”
Amnesty International said it was alarmed by the widening crackdown.
“The coup attempt unleashed appalling violence and those responsible for unlawful killings and other human rights abuses must be brought to justice,” said John Dalhuisen, Amnesty International’s Director for Europe and Central Asia.
But cracking down on dissent and threatening to bring back the death penalty are not justice.
The president has remained in Istanbul ever since he dramatically flew back on Saturday to the city from the holiday resort of Marmaris where he was staying when the coup struck.
It was unclear when he would be coming to the capital Ankara. Every night since the coup he has spoken to supporters in the Istanbul district of Kisikli, where he has a home, urging them to maintain a “vigil” for democracy.
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said 208 people were killed during the coup bid, including 145 civilians, 60 police and three loyalist soldiers.
In addition, the military said 104 coup plotters were killed.
- First published 12.35pm
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If you had switched on the location services you could find that brick in a jiffy. Then again I suppose anyone could track the phone location, hack into it, turn on the camera, record everything. Follow you on Facebook, take your credit card details and all your stored passwords and PIN’s. There’s a lot to be said for the brick.
*cough* HTC
That’s the exact same reason I won’t buy a laptop. I remember the old typewriters, weighed as much as a small car, and you had to practically JUMP on the keys to get them to work…
Was playing with a typewriter over weekend – what a lovely feeling! The sound must have driven the clerks demented though!
In saying that, it would lull you into a nice snooze. Or is that just me on a Monday morning?!
I’d say you’d have super-powerful fingers after a few week using one!
*sigh*
I really enjoy Nick’s columns, but why do I get the uncomfortable feeling that we’re now descending into ‘click-bait’ territory? Please don’t let this thread be another litany of ‘my one is better than yours’…
Wait for it…….fanboys are lining up.
Nick, who gives a curse. I spent 2k punts plus Vat on one of those. They were great for someone on the move but I can understand that their use in a prison was limited
I remember seeing one of those bricks, late 80′s I think. It was the size of a small car but boy did it look cool. Can technology keep going at such a rampant pace into the future? It’s actually quite scary to imagine what tech will be in our homes in 25 yrs from now.
Never mind your home, what will be in your body in 25 years.
Why does the journal give this guy so much time?
I think he writes good articles!
I think he writes good articles!!
Nick writes very good articles, and most importantly, they’re entertaining, the views speak for themselves
As an ex con he has to be extended the olive branch that all other minority groups receive on this website. Never forget how many lives this man ruined.
Good man Tom. Olive branch, lives ruined, so much irony in one statment.
We’re lucky to have a commentator who knows the business inside and out.
I’ll agree this article is a bit below par though.
Nope, he writes whimsical sentimental claptrap.
Dead right. its bloody huge so is Galaxy S3, light and flimsy looking. Galaxy Note is worse. I have a Sony Ericsson, it a perfect size and does the exact same thing as the Top High Range Smartphones.. ?660 for new IPhone 5 on pay as you go. I can buy a new laptop and a new midrange android smartphone for the same price. Ridiculous!!!
Not sure I understand the point of this article. Apart from reviling us with tales of Nicks halcyon days and his distain for new technology? The ‘I used to ‘ave a brick phone’ story is an old one, as is the tired theme of ‘I’m out of touch, with technology and I love telling everyone about it’. I’m not sure how any of this qualifies nick to discuss the release of the iPhone 5? I’m not a fanboy and find apples constant incremental releases kind of boring.. But if your going to discuss something like privacy and the mobile phones affect on it try picking a tech journalist to write it??? I’m kind of surprised at the journals choice of coverage on this, article reads like a Kevin Meyers asshat moment.
Can someone please explain to me what a “Kevin Meyers asshat moment” looks like?.
A thinly veiled advertisement for the latest iphone. And possibly for the building suppliers too :)
So somebody has gotten old and doesn’t embrace technology shocker!
So what, I am sure people thought mobile phone back in the day was not needed. It was really cumbersome, you had to carry a spare battery too.
Modern smart phone is light weight and versatile. Happy to have one and as a business expense it is cheaper to me.
I need to use one now.
Nick, how about putting your genius to writing about the virtues of a fountain pen…. I’ll help!
Eee still don’t really know why are you not buying that phone even after reading this article. Is it because of money you will spend on it? Or because there is no point because soon enough there will be a new one? Or because you will be too easy to reach? Or from a totally different reason that you have not wrote about?
Just asking.
People who keep upgrading (whatever that may be phone,pc,laptop,tv cars etc) really dont care about the environment at the end of the day. Because there old one gets thrown in the dump.. Bigger and bigger dumps across the world. In a resourced based economy items would be built to last not to make a yearly profit margin.
Time for change and the change is coming. Zeitgeist.com
Hey Nick you can’t afford one you owe to much money…
have your say