Turkey imposes 3-month state of emergency
Print Edition
TURKISH authorities imposed a three-month state of emergency yesterday, 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, the country’s first in almost 15 years, shortly before midnight after an almost five-hour meeting of his national security council.
He said the nationwide measure would allow Turkey to be cleared of “terrorists” linked to US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen, whom the president accuses of masterminding the failed coup from his leafy compound in Pennsylvania.
But with concern growing over respect for the rule of law in Turkey almost a week after the coup that left more than 300 people dead and raised fears of chaos in the key NATO member, Erdogan insisted that democracy would not be compromised.
The state of emergency was needed “in order to remove swiftly all the elements of the terrorist organization involved in the coup attempt,” Erdogan said at the presidential palace in Ankara. 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.”
In 2002, Turkey 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 a state of emergency to be imposed “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.”
In a hugely unusual move after the announcement, Erdogan read out the morning call to prayer through loudspeakers at a mosque inside his presidential complex, the pro-government Yeni Safak daily said.
Meanwhile, mobile 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,” Erdogan said in the text message.
He 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 crowds still filling squares at midnight.
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 99 out of 118 generals and admirals detained so far and also placing them in custody, with some later seen bruised and wounded.
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