Post-Coup, Turkey’s Erdogan Targets Unions, Private Education, Charities and Military

Working furiously to consolidate his power after surviving a coup attempt last week, Turkish President Tayyip Recep Erdogan has closed thousands of private schools, unions and charities. In addition, the president is meeting with those military leaders remaining after thousands of officers and the rank-and-file have been removed from their positions in an effort to restructure the nation’s defense and security apparatus. He has extended his emergency powers from four to thirty in order to maintain the ability to detain suspects while the investigation continues. Stabilizing and establishing firm control over the military is clearly an Erdogan imperative. Meanwhile, with the United States not having decided on the Turkish request to extradite the man Erdogan claims is responsible for the attempted coup, Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, from his residence in Pennsylvania, authorities instead detained Gulen’s nephew from his home in northern Turkey and will bring him to Ankara for questioning. The state of emergency declared by Erdogan gives his government the ability to declare laws without parliamentary support while suspending civil rights and freedoms arbitrarily as the government decides.