Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Monday that he would approve a law for death penalty only if the parliament decide to restore it.
“The issue now can be taken to the agenda of the parliament and it can be discussed there," Erdoğan said in an exclusive interview with CNN International in Istanbul after a failed coup attempt that claimed 208 lives and injured almost 1,500 others.
The demand for the restoration of capital punishment for the coup plotters who targeted President Erdoğan, PM Binali Yıldırım, Turkish democracy, and Turkish citizens with heavy weapons.
“There is a clear crime of treason," Erdoğan said vowing that he would not refuse the public's demand to give the highest punishment to pro-coup individuals.
“We previously abolished it, but we can always go back and re-introduce it," Erdoğan said.
The Turkish leader said that the Turkish people's request could never be ignored by the government.
“But the leaders have to come together and discus it. If they accept to discuss it, then as the president I will approve any decision that emerges from the parliament," he said.
This was his first televised interview following the coup attempt that was organized by the members of the Fethullah Terrorist Organization (FETÖ), led by the so-called cleric Fethullah Gülen, who has been living in Pennsylvania, U.S., in self-exile.
The Gülenists have been staging a long-standing campaign against Erdoğan to overthrow him and the AK Party government through FETÖ members within the Turkish state, particularly the military, police and judiciary.
Erdoğan strongly rejected a circulating claim that “he and his friends plotted the coup attempt," saying that those who tried to overthrow the government triggered the idea.
"Tayyip Erdogan and his friends, his colleagues would be the first ones to reject that kind of idea," he said.
“We risk our lives for the people," he added.
"Unfortunately, that is only misinformation. How can you plan such a thing? How can you allow so many civilians to lose their lives? How can human conscience allow that? That is beyond possible," the Turkish president told CNN.
He explained that pro-coup soldiers had stormed a hotel in the Mediterranean coastal city of Marmaris, where Erdoğan himself was on vacation with his family members.
"I was informed that in Istanbul and Ankara and some other places there was some kind of movement that was going on. We decided to move out," he said.
"There was also the operation in Marmaris against me, and two of my close bodyguards were martyred, they were killed. If I stayed 10 or 15 more minutes there, I would have been killed or captured."
Asked if at that moment did he think he was no longer the president of Turkey, Erdogan said it was never a consideration. "I did not have the idea cross my mind because I was with my colleagues and we never had that concern, never had trouble in thoughts."
“I had been informed everything time to time. They had taken control of the control tower of Istanbul Atatürk Airport [where Erdoğan's plane was heading to]. I ordered the Istanbul Police Chief to evacuate the coup plotters from there. We faced some problem in communication because we were in the air. My pilot told me that we can fly 3-4 hours more," he explained.
From the time he landed at Istanbul's Atatürk Airport, F-16 jets began flying above his plane, Erdoğan said.
Following the failed coup attempt, the extradition of the US-based coup plotter Fethullah Gülen is being shouted more strongly from the public.
Erdoğan said he has raised the issue of Gülen's extradition with the US president.
"I had previously made this request to [Barack] Obama, just orally," Erdoğan said.
“But, this week our written formal request will also be conveyed to the US and also to a number of Western countries and African countries. We will be sending those requests formally."
Asked about the possibility that Washington would refuse to extradite Gülen, Erdoğan's response suggests a similar stance going forward, so long as he is the leader of Turkey.
"First, we have to submit our formal request. We will ask for extradition. If there is no positive response to that formal request, if there is ever anyone criminal in the eyes of the US and if they are going to ask for their extradition, as the president of the country I will not allow that," he said.
Regardless of who the US requested Turkey to hand over, Ankara has complied, Erdoğan said, adding that because there is a mutual agreement for extraditing criminals, there should be reciprocity.
"Even if he [Gülen] is a citizen of the US, the US should not keep such a terrorist," Erdoğan said.
Turkey has come under criticism for what some perceive as a crackdown on the free press there. Erdoğan posed a question to those who voice those claims.
"If some people keep saying that the press is not still free in Turkey, then I want to say this. There has been a coup attempt in Turkey. There are people siding with the coup plotters. There are also media outlets that have been against the coup attempt," he said.
“So, my question is that against the media that supported the coup, will the Turkish judicial system not take any steps? Of course it will. Why? Because if you are going to suppress the attempt, then those who are siding with the attempt should be taken to the right place, exposed to right type of treatment because otherwise the citizens, the people, would be deceived via misinformation," he added.
"The people themselves brought me to this position; if I do not do anything they will hold me accountable when the time comes." the Turkish President said.
