Turkish President Erdoğan declares state of emergency

Turkey
Recep Tayyip Erdogan
World
Politics
Wednesday 20 July 2016 at 9:39pm

ITV News report by Geraint Vincent

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has declared that the country will have three months of a state of emergency.

Talking at a press conference after a meeting with his security council, he said that declaring a state of emergency is not outside Turkey's constitution or rule of law, and that Europeans have "no right to criticise" the decision.

The arrangement comes after the failed coup against him, in which over 260 people died, and over a thousand injured.

In the immediate aftermath of the coup, around 50,000 people were rounded up, suspended, or dismissed from their positions, including academics and military generals.

Mr Erdoğan added that the state of emergency needs to happen in order to stop the Gülen movement, a liberal Islamic movement started by Turkish preacher Fethullah Gülen who now resides in the United States.

The 75-year-old preacher has been blamed by the Turkish government of starting the coup, and the US has been asked to extradite him.