Turkey extends police powers, shutters schools

Turkey pushed on Saturday with a sweeping crackdown against suspects accused of taking part in the failed coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, extending police powers to hold people in detention and shuttering over 1,000 private schools.

A week after renegade soldiers tried to oust him with guns, tanks and F16s, Erdogan’s government has rounded up or sacked tens of thousands of perceived state enemies, including almost 300 officers of the guard shielding his Ankara palace.
But in its first major release of suspects amid global criticism of the crackdown, Turkey set free 1,200 low ranking soldiers in Ankara.
Under heightened police powers, suspects can now be held without charge for one month, up from four days, the official gazette announced on the third day of what Erdogan has said would be a three-month state of emergency.
Fears that the strongman will seek to further cement his rule and muzzle dissent through repression have strained ties with Western NATO allies and cast a darkening shadow over Turkey’s long-standing bid to join the European Union.
After Brussels issued stinging criticism and warned Erdogan that bringing back the death penalty would end the membership bid for good, Erdogan fired back that the EU had taken a “biased and prejudiced” stance on Turkey. 
He added bitterly that “for the past 53 years Europe has been making us wait” and that no EU candidate country “has had to suffer like we have had to suffer.” 
He told France 24: “They are making statements that are contradictory. They are biased, they are prejudiced and will continue to act in this prejudiced manner toward Turkey.”
The night of violence left 24 rebel soldiers dead and killed 179 civilians, 62 police and five soldiers who opposed them and have been hailed as “martyrs.”
Since the coup, massive crowds of flag-waving Erdogan supporters have taken to the streets night after night to celebrate their leader.
According to the authorities, 10,410 people have been detained — mainly soldiers, including 283 Presidential Guard officers, but also police, judges and civil servants. Of these, 4,500 have been formally placed under arrest.
The Turkish government has also canceled over 10,000 passports, mainly of state officials, “due to flight risk with the holders either in custody or on the run.”
Aside from the detentions, more than 50,000 other civil servants, down to the family and sports ministries, have been sacked or suspended — in a purge whose speed and scale suggested to many observers that their names were on pre-existing lists.
The government also plans more far-reaching institutional changes, said the interior minister, Efkan Alabama Crucially, he said, control of the gendarmerie, in charge of domestic security, will be wrested from the army and placed under the Interior Ministry.

Source: Arab News