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AFP / President Recep Tayyip Erdogan delivers a speech at the Presidential Complex in Ankara, Turkey, on Wednesday.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan vowed on Thursday to choke off businesses linked to the US-based cleric he blames for an attempted coup, describing his schools, firms and charities as “nests of terrorism” and promising no mercy in rooting them out.
Business is the arena in which the network of Fethullah Gulen is still the strongest, Erdogan said. Those who “financed the shooters” would be treated like the coup plotters, he said.
Erdogan accuses Gulen of harnessing an extensive network of schools, charities and businesses in Turkey and abroad to infiltrate state institutions and build a “parallel structure” that aimed to take over the country.
The 75-year-old cleric denies the allegations.
More than 60,000 people in the military, judiciary, civil service and education have been detained, suspended or investigated for alleged links to his Hizmet (Service) movement since the July 15 coup, prompting fears among western allies and rights groups of an indiscriminate witch-hunt.
“They have nothing to do with a religious community, they are a fully fledged terrorist organisation,” Erdogan said.
“The business world is where they are the strongest. We will cut off all business links, all revenues of Gulen-linked business. We are not going to show anyone any mercy,” he said, describing the detentions so far as just the tip of the iceberg.
Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania since 1999, has denied plotting against the state and has condemned the coup attempt.
Meanwhile, European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker on Thursday rejected Austria’s call for the EU to end membership talks with Ankara as a grave error.
“If one gives the impression to Turkey now that, no matter what, the EU is not ready to take in Turkey, then I would say that is a serious foreign policy mistake,” Juncker told German public broadcaster ARD.
“I don’t think it would be helpful if we were to unilaterally end negotiations with Turkey,” he said, adding that such decisions can only be made with unanimity from all member states.
“I don’t see this willingness among all member states at this point in time” to break off talks, he said.
Juncker acknowledged that Turkey had work to do in order to meet the bloc’s membership conditions.
“Turkey cannot be a member of the EU in its current state, and especially not if it decided, as some have warned, to reinstate the death penalty.
“That would lead to the immediate breaking off of negotiations,” Juncker warned.
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