Turkish president President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Wednesday that the Turkish military would receive new blood with a new structure that would be implemented in a very short time.
In an exclusive interview with Reuters, President Erdoğan said the Armed Forces will be restructured within a short time as he indicated a meeting of the Supreme Military Council (YAŞ), the top body overseeing the armed forces, which had been due on Aug. 1, may be held a week earlier.
The Council is chaired by the prime minister, and includes the defense minister and the chief of general staff.
"They are all working together as to what might be done, and within a short amount of time, they will be presenting their recommendations to the Supreme Military Council…. Within a very short amount of time a new structure will be emerging. With this new structure, I believe the armed forces will receive new blood," Erdoğan said.
He said Turkish military should learn a very serious lesson from last week's failed coup attempt.
“This is an ongoing process; we will never stop. We will continue very actively. We have plans,” he added, “After all that has come to pass, I think they [the military] must now have drawn very important lessons.”
Gap in intelligence and security
Millions of Turkish nationals took to the streets after Erdoğan called them out to stop tanks and military advance on July 15 when a group of military personnel announced to overtake the power.
Anti-coup protesters managed to stop military tanks with only the power of their will and love for the country and democracy.
Erdoğan said the incident shows that the peoples' willpower is mightier than the power of tanks, jets and military helicopters.
He did not rule out new weave of coup attempt stating that it would not be easy, because the authority is more vigilant than ever.
"It might happen, but it will not be so easy, because this time round we will be very attentive and vigilant."
He admitted a gape in intelligence and security as the National Intelligence Agency was able to learn the attempt only hours before the tanks took to the streets.
"Intelligences agencies are not always excellent, they do not always master everything,” he said adding, “And unfortunately in this incident, it is very clear that there were significant gaps and deficiencies in our intelligence.”
"There is no point trying to hide it or deny it; I told it to the head of national intelligence, there is a significant shortcoming of intelligence in all of this.
"Unfortunately when I heard it from my brother-in-law, which was the first time I was hearing about it ...
"It is very grave, very serious. This kind of armed coup attempt isn't something you can plan in 24 hours; there must be more to it. Of course by drawing lessons from all that has happened, we will take steps. We have planned those steps and we will do the necessary follow-up."
Erdoğan, the most dominant political figure on the Turkish stage since Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of the modern republic, and who has had a winning streak of more than 10 election victories, is expected to be more powerful after getting huge support from the public after his strong stance during the failed coup attempt.
This was his first interview after declaring a three-month-long state of emergency to strengthen the democracy and human rights in Turkey.
State of Emergency is not a curfew
"This state of emergency is not a curfew. People will still be on the streets minding their own business and getting on with daily life. It is a step that is taken to render daily life more functional in a short amount of time," Erdoğan said.
He said there was no obstacle to extending the state of emergency beyond the initial three months if necessary, saying that a similar situation has happened in France.
"As you know, France declared an initial state of emergency for three months, then prolonged it for a second three months, and now they have prolonged for yet another three months. ... So there is no obstacle in terms of prolonging it. ... After three months, we can ask for second three-month period and extend it."
The attempt was organized by the members of Gülenist Terrorist Organization (FETÖ), led by the so-called cleric Fethullah Gülen living in self-imposed exile in the US for more than 15 years.
Gülen also led a long-running campaign against the AK Party government inside and outside Turkey and spent huge effort to overthrow Erdoğan through infiltrating Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police and judiciary.
The formation, dubbed as a parallel state structure (PDY) or the Fethullah Terrorist Organization (FETÖ), has staged many attempts against the government such as civil coup attempt on the 17th and 25th of December 2013.
The coup plotters opened fire on anti-coup protesters in Ankara and Istanbul by using tank, machine gun, military helicopters and f-16 fighter jets
At least 246 people, including members of the security forces and civilians, were martyred in Istanbul and Ankara, and more than 1,500 others were wounded as they protested the coup attempt.
The president said 10,410 suspects have so far been detained amid ongoing operations related to the failed coup, with 4,060 remanded back into custody.
FETÖ and Gülen
Erdoğan called the deadliest coup attempt in Turkish history “inhuman” and “immoral”.
He said the Gülenist FETÖ would be treated as a separatist terrorist organization adding that, "We will continue the fight ... wherever they might be. These people have infiltrated the state organization in this country and they rebelled against the state."
"Both the Turkish armed forces, the Turkish national police, and all of our ministries, these people almost invaded all of these, occupied all of these institutions. They were occupying forces in these state institutions because they were not working for their homeland, and these traitors have to pay the price.”
He compared the FETÖ's infiltration into the state institutes to a malignant cancer in the body that could spread and return if not eliminated.
"There is an example I give. It is like a cancer; it is a cancer metastasizing in the human body. ... The physicians will tell you we have cleaned it out, but after a while you might see the cancer coming back,” Erdoğan said.
He vowed to fight against the “virus” indication that all the ways of their returning to the state institutions would be closed.
"We will do everything necessary to have the highest rate of success ... whatever the law allows or admits", Erdoğan said.
Erdoğan said that Turkish government during his term as a Prime Minister had supported the FETÖ members as citizens of Turkey. But they betray with the country, its people and the government, he added.
"We never considered even the possibility that they might be involved in this kind of treason. They were citizens of our country and we supported them to the fullest as citizens of our country. They are traitors, that's what they did, they betrayed this country. They are present in education, in trade, in religious affairs. They have always been two-faced if you want and now we see their real face very clearly,” the Turkish President continued.
Ankara has sent official requests to the US authority to seek the extradition of Gülen, as some officials from Washington have repeatedly denied to extradite him.
An action against Turkish state
Erdoğan said the attempt was not only a coup, it was an occasion to destroyed the state of Turkey
"It is indecent to say that. Do you have people saying that 9/11 was orchestrated by the United States, or can we attribute the latest incident in France to President Hollande's administration? No, you don't have people saying that.
"This attempted coup was against the nation. Why? Because the National Assembly was bombarded, it was against the nation that this was done. They did not stop there: they bombarded parliament. They also bombarded this very presidential complex, and we lost five martyrs as a result. Similarly, they attacked the premises of the prime minister, the special operations unit of the Turkish national police where 47 people were martyred."
Economy
President Erdoğan said Turkey had come from “a very tough past” in terms of the country's economy and now it is strong enough to eliminate coup shocks.
He harshly criticized rating agency Standard and Poor's latest update on the Turkish economy rating that was released shortly after the coup attempt had failed.
Turkey isn't a country that really has the conditions pointed out by Standard & Poor's. We have no affiliation to S&P, so how can an institution to which we have no affiliation make a declaration about us? It's completely political.
"It is simply the proof that they are hired agents by other people. And Moody's: if they come up with a similar statement, it's not honest. It's not objective. When you have an attempted coup in Turkey, how can you go ahead and decide if Turkey is a country in which people can invest or not, what's your criteria for that?"
"They sided with the coup plotters, they've never been in favor of democracy. ... The stance of these international organizations; we simply cannot understand these positions. We will not mind what they have to say. We will mind our own business."
He vowed that Turkey will continue its economic reforms saying that the government's support for business would continue.
