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Turkey extends emergency for 90 days: Deputy PM

Turkey will maintain the state of emergency imposed in the wake of July’s failed coup for another three months, starting October 19, Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said on Monday.

“The state of emergency will be extended for another 90 days starting October 19,” Kurtulmus said, after a weekly Cabinet meeting. The government has launched a crackdown to nab suspects in the failed putsch, blamed by authorities on US-based Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen. 

Gulen, who is living in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania since 1999, has denied his involvement in the coup bid.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had last week said that it might be necessary to keep the state of emergency for at least a year. He defended Turkey’s actions by pointing to how France has extended its emergency declaration since the IS claimed the Paris attacks.

The opposition Republican People’s Party has accused the government of seeking to capitalise on the coup to stifle dissent. Some 32,000 suspects had been remanded in custody so far for alleged links to Gulen. 
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