President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Thursday that a state of emergency declared after a failed coup on July 15 could be extended for another 12 months, a day after Turkey’s top security body proposed an extension for three more months.
Speaking to provincial and local governors in Ankara, the president said it would be to Turkey’s benefit to extend emergency rule for another three months. But he also said: “They say one year isn’t enough for Turkey. Let’s wait and see, maybe 12 months will not be enough.”
More than 100,000 public servants have been dismissed, 70,000 people detained and 32,000 arrested since the July 15 coup attempt. Under emergency rule, the government has shut down 131 media outlets, 1,043 high schools, 800 dormitories, 15 universities and 1,254 civil society groups.
Critics and opposition parties, with the exception of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), oppose an extension of emergency rule, saying that it grants enormous power to the government to run the country by decree with almost no legislative oversight.
The scope of the post-coup crackdown has sown seeds of fear and social mistrust amid endless purges in all state institutions.
The MHP leader said on Thursday that his party would support the extension of the state of emergency to fight against threats to national security.