Erdogan chairs security council as 50,000 hit by Turkey purge

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 Erdogan’s ally-turned-foe.
Turkey accuses Gulen of running a “terror group” and has stepped up pressure on Washington to extradite him, sending several “dossiers” it says are packed with evidence about his alleged involvement.
Gulen issued a statement Tuesday urging Washington to reject the extradition call and dismissed as “ridiculous” the claim he was behind the botched coup.
The 75-year-old reclusive cleric lives in Pennsylvania but retains vast interests in Turkey ranging from media to finance to schools and wields influence in various arms of the state, including the judiciary and police.
In their first telephone conversation since the attempted overthrow, President Barack Obama pledged US assistance to Erdogan for the investigation into the putsch, which has threatened to once again raise tensions between the uneasy NATO allies.
MPs have meanwhile carried on working in parliament, despite rubble and shards of glass still covering the floor after three air strikes on the night of the coup.
Ankara’s police headquarters is in an even worse state, with the 10-story building gutted by repeated air attacks and the air still thick with dust from the rubble.
“I do not know how long the rebuilding will take. But we have started,” a senior police official told AFP at the scene.
The government says 312 people were killed in the coup, including 145 civilians, 60 police, three soldiers and 104 plotters.
Before the plot erupted, the government had been waging a relentless military campaign against Kurdish rebels in the southeast of the country and their rear bases in northern Iraq.
In the first air strikes since the coup, fighter jets late Tuesday hit targets of the PKK in the Hakurk region of northern Iraq, said the state-run Anadolu news agency, quoting security sources. It claimed 20 fighters were killed.

Source: Arab News