Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey shuts down thousands of institutions in response to coup

He said perpetrators of the coup will “pay a heavy price” and it appears the purge is already in full swing. Turkey’s president Tayyip Erdogan accused United States-based cleric Fethullah Gulen of being behind the coup and has gone a step further and signed a decree to close 1,043 private schools, 1,229 foundations and associations, 35 medical institutions, 19 unions, and 15 universities linked to the cleric.
He has also extended the maximum amount of time a suspect can be detained before being charged from four to 30 days, a decision which has been criticized by groups such as Amnesty International.

“The decision to extend the detention period to 30 days is disproportionate,” Amnesty International Turkey Researcher Andrew Gardner said. “It is too long and given the reports we have received so far it will facilitate torture and undermine the right to a fair trial.”

Erdogan pledged that during the state of emergency “all the viruses within the armed forces will be cleansed,” but ensured that it would not limit people’s rights and freedoms.

“The state of emergency law will not prevent you from going out; on the contrary it will allow you to gather at the squares,” he said.

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