Turkey's Erdogan declares state of emergency after coup attempt
Turkey's president has declared a three-month state of emergency in response to Friday's failed coup d'etat.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the state of emergency was needed "in order to remove swiftly all the elements of the terrorist organisation involved in the coup attempt," he said at the presidential palace in Ankara.
He made the declaration in a speech from the capital Ankara, telling citizen they should not have "the slightest concern with regards to democracy, rule of law, fundamental rights and freedoms".
Turkey has accused the group of US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen of being behind the coup and acting as a terror group. Gulen vehemently denies the charge.
"The decision has been made to declare the state of emergency for a period of three months," he said at a news conference.
He said the state of emergency is a measure "against the terror threat facing our country".
The announcement followed long meetings of Turkey's national security council and cabinet chaired by Erdogan at the presidential palace.
Erdogan vowed that democracy would not be compromised in Turkey.
"We have never made compromises on democracy. And we will never make" them, Erdogan told a news conference in Ankara.
The announcement comes as the nationwide crackdown continues, as purges in the judiciary, military, civil service and education widen.
Around 60,000 people have been purged from their jobs since Friday's coup attempt. Source: AFP
Two members of Turkey's constitutional court have been arrested, private broadcaster NTV is reporting.
About 60,000 soldiers, police, judges, civil servants and teachers have been suspended, detained or are under investigation since Friday's attempted coup staged by a faction within the armed forces.
The two constitutional court members were among a group of 113 officials from the judiciary formally arrested on Wednesday, NTV said.
Formal charges were also brought against President Tayyip Erdogan's chief aide-de-camp, it said.
The failed putsch and the ensuing purges have seriously unsettled Turkey, a country of nearly 80 million which borders Syria and is a Western ally against Islamic State.
Wikileaks blocked
Anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks has released nearly 300,000 emails linked to President Erdogan's ruling AKP party, with the nation immediately blocking access on Wednesday.
WikiLeaks said the emails came from the party's web domain akparti.org.tr and mainly related to world affairs and not "the most sensitive internal matters".
It said the emails, which date between 2010 and July 6 this year, were obtained before the attempted coup of July 16.
"WikiLeaks has moved forward its publication schedule in response to the government's post-coup purges," the transparency website said in a statement.
The source of the emails "is not connected, in any way, to the elements behind the attempted coup, or to a rival political party or state", it said.
The state of emergency will be in place for three months, Erdogan said. Source: AFP
A Turkish official said the WikiLeaks website was being blocked "due to violation of privacy and publication of illegally obtained data".
The coup represented the most serious threat to Erdogan's 13-year domination of Turkey and the president has said he came within 15 minutes of being killed or kidnapped by the plotters before escaping.
Tens of thousands of people including soldiers, police officers, judges and teachers have since been either detained or sacked in a widening purge.
The putsch left over 300 dead and caused scenes of devastation, especially in Ankara where raids by F-16s and attack helicopters on strategic targets terrified residents and turned parts of parliament and the police headquarters to rubble.
Those killed in the coup have been called 'martyrs' by the president. Source: AFP
Founded in 2006 and launched a year later by Australian ex-hacker Julian Assange, WikiLeaks came to prominence in 2010 when it released the video of a US helicopter strike in Baghdad that killed two Reuters staff.
Later that year it released tens of thousands of internal US military documents relating to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, detailing cases of abuse, torture and civilian deaths.
It then leaked 250,000 diplomatic cables from US embassies around the world which deeply embarrassed Washington.
News break – July 21
