Turkey imposes state of emergency after failed coup

Ankara / AFP

Turkish authorities on Thursday imposed a three-month state of emergency, strengthening powers to round up suspects accused of staging the failed military coup despite global alarm over a widening purge.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared the state of emergency, Turkey’s first in 14 years, shortly before midnight after a marathon meeting of his national security council, and it entered into force Thursday when it was published in the official gazette.
Erdogan said it would allow Turkey to be cleared of “terrorists” linked to US-based Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen, whom he accuses of masterminding the failed coup from his leafy compound in Pennsylvania.
Concern is growing over respect for the rule of law almost a week after the coup attempt that left over 300 people dead and raised fears of chaos in the key NATO member.
But Erdogan insisted democracy would not be compromised and lashed out at critics of the sweeping purge that has seen tens of thousands of people detained, sacked or suspended.
The state of emergency was needed “in order to remove swiftly all the elements of the terrorist organisation involved in the coup attempt,” Erdogan said. But he added: “We have never made compromises on democracy. And we will never make” them.
The state of emergency gives the government extra powers to restrict freedom of movement, said an official, adding that it would not restrict financial or commercial activities as “international law sets limits of restrictions”.
Turkey in 2002 lifted its last state of emergency, which had been imposed in southeastern provinces for the fight against Kurdish militants in 1987.
Article 120 of the constitution allows the measure “at a time of serious deterioration of public order because of acts of violence”.
Erdogan vowed that work would now continue “to fight to clean out all those viruses from the armed forces”.

‘Own the squares’
Warning that his opponents may launch new provocations, Erdogan has urged his supporters to remain in squares across the country in what he calls a “vigil” for democracy.
After announcing the state of emergency, Erdogan spoke by video link to the flag-waving crowds still filling squares nationwide at midnight.
Erdogan on Thursday even read out the morning call to prayer through loudspeakers at the mosque inside his presidential complex, the pro-government Yeni Safak daily said, although presidential officials later denied he had done so.
Meanwhile, mobile phone users across Turkey received text messages sent by “RTErdogan” urging people to stay in the streets to resist “the terrorists”. “The owners of the squares are not the tanks. The owners are the nation,” said the text message.
Erdogan suggested that there would be further detentions in the crackdown, which has already netted several widely known figures.
Late Wednesday, a court remanded in custody Ali Yazici, the president’s aide-de-camp who looked after military protocol on state occasions and was regularly seen by Erdogan’s side, on charges of supporting the coup.
The crackdown has been extraordinary in scope, taking in not just soldiers but also judges, prosecutors and lawyers. Some 50,000 state employees have either been detained or lost their jobs.
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.
Courts have remanded in custody 109 out of 125 generals and admirals detained so far. Some been seen bruised and wounded in images published by state media.
“Of course that does not mean we have come to the end of it,” Erdogan told Al-Jazeera.
Eight Turkish military officers who fled to Greece by helicopter after the coup and are accused by Turkey of taking part in the plot went on trial Thursday in the northern city of Alexandroupoli.
If convicted of illegal entry, they face a sentence of up to five years in prison.

‘Mind your own business’
The Turkish leader lashed out at critics of the government actions, telling France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault — who had warned Erdogan not to use the failed coup as a carte blanche to silence his opponents — to “mind his own business”. “If he wants a lesson in democracy, he can very easily get a lesson in democracy from us,” Erdogan told Al-Jazeera.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier stressed it was “vital that the state of emergency is limited for the required time and then immediately lifted”.
Austria said it will summon Turkey’s ambassador to discuss Ankara’s “increasingly authoritarian” behaviour while Dunja Mijatovic, the OSCE representative on freedom of the media, said a crackdown on pro-Gulen media was the latest challenge to press freedom in the country.
Turkey has stepped up pressure on Washington to extradite Gulen, sending several “dossiers” it says are packed with evidence about his alleged involvement. Gulen has urged Washington to reject the extradition call and dismissed as “ridiculous” the claim he was behind the botched coup.
Erdogan, asked if other countries could have been involved in the coup, told Al-Jazeera: “There could be.”
Government says 312 people were killed in the coup, including 145 civilians, 60 police, 3 soldiers and 104 plotters.