[Ynet] Supporters of US-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen living in the Netherlands fear for their safety after dozens of death threats in the wake of a failed coup attempt, a spokeswoman for the community said on Friday. Dutch police declined to comment.
Erdogan cancels 50,000 passports
| How many of those purged will decide the Kurds are the answer to the question Erdogan poses? |
PKK's Riza Altun: Erdogan is conducting the real coup
[RUDAW.NET] "The real coup is that which Erdogan is currently conducting," said Riza Altun, head of foreign relations for the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), in an interview with Al-Monitor published on Friday.
Altun reiterated the PKK’s stance that neither the rule of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him...
nor a military-led coup government would be good for the Kurdish cause. "Even if we assumed that the coup attempt succeeded, the ensuing regime would not have been democratic, but anti-Kurdish. None of them is better than the other: neither Erdogan nor the army."
| Mr. Altun shared more opinions at the link. |
Fethullah Gulen on 'GPS': Failed Turkey coup looked 'like a Hollywood movie'
[CNN] Fethullah Gulen, the reclusive holy man accused by ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
of hatching a military coup attempt, concedes that his supporters could have been involved in the putsch but again denied any direct connection.
"There might have been some sympathetic people [to Gulen] among them," he told CNN's Fareed Zakaria in an interview.
But Gulen has repeatedly denied government claims he has directed sympathizers to destabilize the Erdogan regime.
"Some people staged a scenario, then someone who is seemingly a fan, has led some people into this," he said. "It looks more like a Hollywood movie than a military coup. It seems something like a staged scenario. It is understood from what is seen that they prepared the ground to realize what they have already planned."
Turkish armed forces "reined in"
| A separate story embedded within an Incirlik story from Sunday. |
The changes come after more than 1700 military personnel were dishonourably discharged for their role in the abortive July 15-16 putsch. Erdogan, who narrowly escaped capture and possible death on the night of the coup, told Reuters in an interview last week that the military, NATO’s second-biggest, needed “fresh blood”.
Both the general staff and the intelligence agency now report to the prime minister’s office. Putting them under the president’s overall direction would be in line with Erdogan’s push for a new constitution centred on a strong executive presidency.
Turkey Dismisses 1,400 Troops as Erdogan Tightens Grip
[AnNahar] Turkey's government on Sunday dismissed nearly 1,400 military personnel, including a top aide to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in the latest round of a sweeping purge following a failed coup.
The announcement in the official gazette came as Erdogan sought to tighten his grip over the country.
Erdogan's aide-de-camp Ali Yazici, who was arrested five days after the July 15 putsch, was among the 1,389 dismissed by a new decree in the official gazette. Chief-of-staff Hulusi Akar's aide-de-camp Levent Turkkan and Defense Minister Fikri Isik's executive assistant Tevfik Gok were also discharged.
The new decree also confirmed his announcement that a new national military university would be established within the defense ministry. Military hospitals are to come under the control of the health ministry.
Anadolu meanwhile said Turkey's deputy prime ministers and the ministers for justice, interior and foreign affairs have all become members of the Supreme Military Council, which determines the armed forces' agenda.