Erdogan suggests emergency could extend to a year

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan suggested on Thursday it may be necessary to keep the state of emergency imposed after the July coup bid in place for at least a year. His comments came a day after he chaired Turkey’s top national security body which called for the current state of emergency to be extended […]

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan suggested on Thursday it may be necessary to keep the state of emergency imposed after the July coup bid in place for at least a year.
His comments came a day after he chaired Turkey’s top national security body which called for the current state of emergency to be extended when it expires in October.
“It was seen that a three-month period was not enough… It’s in Turkey’s favour to extend state of emergency three months more,” Erdogan said in televised comments.
“Maybe a 12-month (emergency) will not be enough,” he added.
The state of emergency has laid the legal basis for the government to launch a vast crackdown on suspected plotters of the July 15 coup attempt blamed on a group led by US-based Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen – charges he denies.
Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said on Wednesday that so far 32,000 suspects had been remanded in custody for alleged links to Gulen.