Turkey on Saturday marked one year since the defeat of the failed coup bid with mass nationwide rallies and a stern warning by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to “chop off the heads” of traitors.
On Friday, the Turkish Embassy in Washington, D.C. held a press conference to observe the one year anniversary of the failed coup that left nearly 250 people dead and thousands more injured.
Turkey will observe the anniversary of a failed coup attempt against Islamist President Recep Tayyip Erdogan with nationwide “Democracy Watch” marches beginning at midnight on July 15. The government has scheduled events to commemorate the occasion all week, however, including art exhibits, memorial debuts, and a speech from Erdogan.
The International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) denied numerous reports circulating this week that it had ejected the Turkish government from its online database following an attempt to brand tens of thousands of citizens believed to support Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen criminals.
According to a Turkish media report, Interpol blocked Turkey from accessing its criminal database after the Turks uploaded about 60,000 individuals wanted for the “crime” of having connections to exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen, one-time friend and now arch-enemy of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
ANKARA, Turkey — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday accused the country’s main opposition party of siding with terrorism, as a three-week “march for justice” led by its chief neared its ending point of Istanbul.
Turkish police arrested the chairman of Amnesty International Turkey on Tuesday, on charges of collusion with exiled imam Fethullah Gülen, alleged mastermind behind the failed coup attempt of July 2016.
ISTANBUL (AP) – Turkey’s official news agency says the chief adviser to the prime minister has been detained for alleged links to U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, who is blamed by the government for last summer’s coup attempt. Anadolu news agency
Turkish government agencies are competing with each other to most ardently accuse Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen of sowing chaos throughout Turkey’s infrastructure. The latest salvo in the contest comes from the National Intelligence Agency (MİT), which released a report this week claiming Gulen has forged ties with “intelligence agencies” that include the CIA.
Turkey began a mass trial for some two hundred accused coup plotters on Monday, including a number of military officers. The defendants were marched into the courtroom past demonstrators who called for their execution.
Turkish prosecutors have accused Gulenists of using the popular television fantasy series Game of Thrones as a weapon to infiltrate the military and set up the failed July coup attempt.
The government of Turkey has accused detained American pastor Andrew Brunson of delivering pro-Kurdish sermons, a treasonous accusation in the eyes of Ankara, after claiming the Christian leader was a follower of Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen.
Contents: Washington shocked as Turkey’s security forces attack peaceful protesters; Turkey’s Erdogan leaves empty-handed from meeting with Trump
Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım warned that his government would attack U.S.-allied Kurdish fighters in Syria if Ankara deemed it necessary, shortly before President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met his American counterpart Donald Trump in Washington.
The Turkish government is seeking over 3,600 life sentences, nearly 3,000 additional years in prison, and a 2.2 million-day additional sentence for Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish cleric exiled in the United States who Ankara blames for the failed coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
“One thousand and nine secret imams have been detained so far in 72 provinces, and the operation is ongoing,” Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu announced in an Ankara press conference on Wednesday.
On Monday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Turkish voters living in Europe they could strike a blow against the “grandchildren of Nazism” by supporting the referendum to give him more power.
A mob of supporters of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attacked a women’s rally urging Turks to vote “no” in the upcoming constitutional referendum, which would greatly expand Erdogan’s powers as president should the “yes” vote win in April.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu has confirmed that U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will visit Turkey on March 30. Tillerson will meet with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan following a diplomatic dispute with the Netherlands that has triggered a wave of anti-Western vitriol from the Islamist Turkish head of state.
A mob of supporters of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan congregated Sunday to squeeze and mutilate oranges as a protest against the Netherlands, which has prevented Turkish government officials from attending pro-Erdogan rallies on Dutch soil.
CIA Director Mike Pompeo will make his first trip overseas to Turkey, Presidents Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Donald Trump agreed in a 45-minute phone call Tuesday evening.
Turkish authorities announced the mass arrests of hundreds of individuals suspected of working to infiltrate Turkey with the Islamic State, 763 of which were arrested on Sunday alone.
48-year-old pastor Andrew Brunson of Black Mountain, North Carolina, was arrested in Turkey last October after performing missionary work in Turkey for 23 years.
Turkey has arrested more than 1,600 people accused of being linked to the failed military coup in July 2016, including 1,218 suspected followers of the U.S.-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen.
The Turkish government has taken the opportunity of a visit from a high-ranking Japanese official to warn the east Asian country to beware of any ties to Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accuses of running an international terrorist network responsible for a failed coup against him in July.
The European Union’s intelligence report on the true causes of July’s thwarted coup against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is not going to sit well with Erdogan or his officials.
A Turkish court has put a broadcast ban on reporting of the investigation into last week’s murder of the Russian ambassador to Ankara Andrei Karlov, state media said on Tuesday.
The on-camera murder of Russian ambassador Andrey Karlov by 22-year-old Turkish police officer Mevlut Mert Altintas raised some disturbing questions about corruption and security in Turkey.
The void left by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s purges of tens of thousands of soldiers and security agents following July’s attempted coup was partly filled by Islamists, an Arab intelligence official said.
In a telephone conversation Monday, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Cavuşoğlu reportedly told his American counterpart John Kerry that the policeman who killed Russian Ambassador to Ankara Andrey Karlov that day was tied to the U.S.-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, and that Russia agreed with Turkey’s conclusion.
Contents: Man who shot Russia’s ambassador in Turkey was in security forces; Turkey and Russia blame Fethullah Gulen and the US for the assassination; Both Turkey and Russia stand to gain by blaming US for assassination
Russian investigators arrived in Turkey on Tuesday to probe the assassination of Moscow’s ambassador at an Ankara art show, as both sides pledged the murder would not damage improving relations.
Turkish police have told reporters that Mevlüt Mert Altıntaş, the police officer responsible for the assassination of Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrey Karlov, had in his possession materials linking him to both al-Qaeda and the U.S.-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen.
Following the dramatic assassination of Russian ambassador to Turkey Andrey Karlov on Monday, senior officials in both countries have begun to speculate on the killer’s origins.
The only Christian mayor in Turkey, a U.S. NATO ally, has been removed as part of a purge by the ruling Islamist government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan following an abortive coup earlier this year.
Turkish media have picked up an opinion piece by key Trump foreign policy adviser Gen. Michael Flynn calling for the extradition of Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, while at least one Turkish official has expressed eagerness to work with an incoming Trump administration to have the cleric returned to his home country.
An unnamed “senior U.S. State Department official” told reporters Tuesday that American law enforcement evidence suggests that Turkish Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen operates his charter schools like an “organized crime” syndicate, not a religious group, and that Turkey’s demands to extradite Gulen for criminal activity “may have some merit.”
Turkish authorities have dismissed more than 10,000 civil servants over their suspected links with U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, blamed by Ankara for orchestrating the failed coup in July.
Turkey has not forgotten about exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen nor abandoned its demands for his extradition from the United States. In fact, Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag is currently en route to Washington to discuss extradition with Attorney General Loretta Lynch.
Texas education officials dismissed a complaint filed by the Turkish government against the state’s largest charter school network, Harmony Public Schools, reportedly linked to reclusive Islamist cleric Fethullah Gülen.
