By Humeyra Pamuk and Ercan Gurses ISTANBUL/ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey purged its police on Monday after rounding up thousands of soldiers in the wake of a failed military coup, and said it could reconsider its friendship with the United States unless Washington hands over a cleric Ankara blames for the putsch. The broad crackdown and calls to reinstate the death penalty for plotters drew concern from Western allies who said Ankara must uphold the rule of law in the country, a NATO member whose cooperation in the fight against Islamic State is crucial to Washington. Some voiced concern President Tayyip Erdogan – who said he was almost killed or captured by the mutineers – was using the opportunity to consolidate his power and further a process of stifling dissent which has already caused tensions with Europe.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/turkey-widens-post-coup-purge-demands-u-hand-012419864–finance.html

This entry was posted on Monday, July 18th, 2016 at 8:24 pm and is filed under World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.