Turkey coup arrests hit 6,000 as Erdogan roots out ‘virus’

Turkey has arrested 6,000 people after a failed coup, with President Erdogan vowing to purge state bodies of the “virus” that caused the revolt.

Mr Erdogan’s top military aide Col Ali Yazici is among those now in custody.

The number of those killed in the weekend violence had risen to 290, the foreign ministry said. More than 100 of them had been involved in the coup.

Security forces are reported to have met resistance from some coup-plotters who were being arrested.

Warning shots were fired at Istanbul’s second largest airport, and also at a military base in central Konya province, unnamed officials said.

“We will continue to cleanse the virus from all state institutions, because this virus has spread. Unfortunately like a cancer, this virus has enveloped the state,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan told mourners at at a funeral in Istanbul for victims of the coup.

The president repeated an accusation that US-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen was behind the plot. Mr Gulen strongly denies any involvement.

Among the latest arrests to be reported was the commander of Incirlik air base in the south used by US-led coalition jets for raids against the so-called Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria. Unnamed officials said Gen Bekir Ercan Van and 10 other soldiers had been detained for their role in the coup.

Also on Sunday, more than 50 senior soldiers were detained in the western province of Denizli, including the garrison commander.

Those arrested on Saturday were reported to include Gen Erdal Ozturk, commander of the Third Army; Gen Adem Huduti, commander of the Second Army; and Akin Ozturk, the former Chief of Air Staff.

One of Turkey’s most senior judges, Alparslan Altan, has also been taken into custody.

President Erdogan has called on the US to extradite Fethullah Gulen, 75, who heads the popular Hizmet movement and is said to count military chiefs and mid-level bureaucrats among his followers.

Once allies, Mr Erdogan has long accused Mr Gulen and his supporters of plotting against him. US Secretary of State John Kerry said of any extradition, that Turkey should “present us with any legitimate evidence that withstands scrutiny”.

Mr Gulen has denied any involvement in the coup. He has been in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania for the past 15 years, said: “I don’t even know who my followers [in Turkey] are.”

Mr Kerry strongly rebuked a Turkish minister who suggested Washington was behind the coup. He said “utterly false” insinuations were “harmful to our bilateral relations”.

US President Barack Obama has joined other world leaders in calling for all parties in Turkey to “act within the rule of law”. BBC