Turkey Crackdown on Rebels Goes to Heart of Erdogan’s Inner Circle
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The crackdown against those responsible for Turkey’s abortive coup moved into the heart of the President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s inner circle on Sunday night while sporadic fighting in two cities signaled that small pockets of mutineers were still resisting arrest.
Thousands of loyal Turks crowded around public areas such as Ataturk airport in Istanbul and the presidential palace in Ankara, underscoring Mr. Erdogan’s call to his followers to remain vigilant.
The arrest on Sunday night of Mr. Erdogan’s aide-de-camp, Colonel Ali Yazici, a man with unfettered access to the president, showed how deep the conspiracy to topple his government ran.
At least 29 generals and more than 20 colonels are among the nearly 6,000 arrested, while 3,000 more remain at large, according to Turkish officials. The alleged ringleader, ex-air force chief Akin Ozturk, will be charged with treason, according to an official, the Financial Times reported.
Fears were growing that Mr. Erdogan would use the coup to target the independent judiciary. More than 2,700 judges and prosecutors have been fired, including two members of the highest court. The government has yet to tie them to the putsch.
As the arrests gathered pace, Mr. Erdogan called the coup “a gift from God to cleanse the army”. So many soldiers have been detained that some have been locked in schools in Ankara.
“We are not after revenge — if they have tanks and weapons, we have the belief against this,” he said as supporters demanded the return of the death penalty, which Turkey abandoned as part of its move to join the EU in the early 2000s.
Mr. Erdogan has yet to return to Ankara, after arriving in Istanbul in the early hours of Saturday morning following the failed coup.
A Turkish official said that there was nothing extraordinary in the president remaining in Istanbul. He spent Sunday attending the funerals of one of his political campaigners, and the brother of his chief of staff, who were shot by soldiers supporting the coup.
Separately, Mikail Gullu, the military attaché at the Turkish embassy in Kuwait, has been taken into custody in Saudi Arabia en route to Amsterdam, according to a Turkish official, who said that Mr Gullu was on a list of people designated by the junta for jobs in government.
Turkey is putting pressure on the US to hand over the self-exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen, who it is blaming for the coup, but has yet to submit a formal extradition request, Washington said.
Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said any country that supported Mr Gulen was “engaged in a serious war with Turkey”. John Kerry, the US secretary of state, on Sunday said that it was “irresponsible to have accusations of American involvement”, adding that the US was “not harboring anybody”.
One person with access to preliminary investigations in Turkey said there was evidence of “direct involvement with Pennsylvania”, using a common reference for Mr Gulen, who resides on a farm in the state. “It will be shared with the US government as soon as possible.”
On Sunday, the scale of damage wrought on Ankara was becoming apparent.
The front half of the parliament complex was destroyed and the headquarters of the military intelligence building nearby was damaged. Onlookers gaped at the holes in the walls surrounding the presidential palace.