ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Turkey arrested more than 1,600 people last week, most of whom accused of connections to the attempted July 2016 military coup, the country’s Interior Ministry said on Monday, some of the detainees are members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
“They included 1,218 suspected members of the Fetullah Terrorist Organization held responsible for the attempted coup in July, 372 PKK [Kurdistan Workers’ Party] suspects and 75 Daesh [ISIS] suspects,” according to a statement summarized by the Anadolu news agency.
The government of Turkey has claimed Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, who lives in self-imposed exile in the United States, and his followers staged a July 2016 coup to overthrow President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP)-dominated government.
More than 100,000 public officials and civil servants, including around 28,000 teachers, have been dismissed or suspended since the coup attempt which killed at least 241 citizens and police. During the attempted coup, fighter jets bombed the country’s parliament.
“The scale of dismissals and prosecutions in connection with the coup and weakened safeguards gave rise to serious concerns that the legitimate prosecution of those suspected of involvement in the coup attempt is being conducted without due process,” Human Rights Watch wrote in a report summarizing human rights in Turkey for 2016.
Turkey has experienced frequent attacks since July 2015, with hundreds of civilians, police, and government officials being killed. ISIS or the PKK typically claims or is accused of the attacks.
Turkey’s deputy prime minister renewed calls on Monday for the US government to extradite Gulen, whose movement allied with the upstart AKP in the early 2000s, helping it come to power, before the two groups fell out of favor in 2013.
“We are convinced and hopeful that, especially regarding Turkey and the US relations, the old administration’s mistakes will not be repeated,” Numan Kurtulmus said, probing new US President Donald Trump’s diplomacy toward Ankara.
