Germany, EU criticise Turkey's post-coup purge
Germany on Wednesday condemned Turkey's escalating crackdown following a failed coup, saying the hardline response is not in accordance with the law. Meanwhile, Ankara says the coup was masterminded by US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen and the massive crackdown appears to be targeting individuals suspected of any connection to him.
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On Wednesday Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan chaired a security meeting after a purge that has seen around 50,000 people either detained or sacked, among them 99 generals and admirals.
The country's higher education council has banned academics from work trips abroad.
“Of course there will be certain measures taken by the government to control and to point out the people who are supporting the coup, who are involved in the coup attempt," says Sabiha Gundogar, head political science of TESEV, a thinktank in Istanbul.
She says the ban affects her work, but thinks it is “only temporary”.
They suspect that Gulenists may be using those passports to leave the country
Turkey increases post-coup crackdown
“All holidays are called off in all public sectors,” says Koray Caliscan, another political scientist. “Universities are independent institutions, but [people working in them] are public employees.
“They are reviewing the passport regulations that are extended to public employees because public employees after certain years can get private special passports, and with those passports they can go anywhere in Europe without any visa. And they suspect that Gulenists may be using those passports to leave the country.”
Germany has criticised Turkey’s increasingly harsh measures taken as a result of the coup attempt.
“Nearly every day we are seeing new measures that flout the rule of law and that disregard the principle of proportionality," German government spokesman Steffen Seibert told reporters.
“There is no doubt that they are deeply worrying."
After Erdogan suggested that the death penalty might be restored Germany and the EU have warned that restoring the death penalty would make Turkey's long road towards EU membership even longer.
"Let me be very clear ... no country can become an EU state if it introduces the death penalty," EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini said.
And the Council of Europe said the death penalty was incompatible with Turkey's membership of the body, which works to promote democracy, the rule of law, human rights and economic development. Turkey joined the Council of Europe in 1949.
Meanwhile, the Turkish coup attempt and its aftermath is being followed nervously by people in Turkish-held northern Cyprus.
“There are serious concerns that it will not be good,” says Ayla Gurel, a researcher with the Peace Research Institute Oslo (Cyprus office). “Especially people who are not very keen on the policies of the AK Party.”
Gurel says there were “incidents” on the night of the coup.
“There was this use of a mosque, broadcasting quotes to the public, in support of the government etc. A similar thing was done in northern Cyprus.”
But in the southern part of the island, where the Republic of Cyprus is a fully fledged EU member, there was another kind of feeling.
“There is a kind of relief in the south,” Gurel, who just returned from there, says.
“The idea is that the Turkish military suffered a very big blow indeed and the Turkish establishment, the power of which is symbolised by the power of its military, looks not what it used to be."
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