Turkey widened a crackdown on suspected supporters of a failed military coup on Sunday, taking the number of people rounded up in the armed forces and judiciary to 6,000, and the government said it was in full control of the country and economy. Supporters of President Tayyip Erdogan gathered in front of his Istanbul home to call for the plotters to face the death penalty, which Turkey outlawed in 2004 as part of its efforts to join the European Union.
"We cannot ignore this demand," Erdogan told the chanting crowd. "In democracies, whatever the people say has to happen."
Pictures on social media showed detained soldiers stripped from the waist up, some wearing only their underpants, handcuffed and lying packed together on the floor of a sports hall where they were being held in Ankara.
One video on Twitter showed detained generals with bruises and bandages. Akin Ozturk, head of the air force until 2015 and identified by three senior officials as one of the suspected masterminds of the coup plot, was among those held.
The Foreign Ministry raised the death toll to more than 290, including over 100 rebels, and said 1,400 people were hurt.
The violence shocked the nation of almost 80 million, once seen as a model Muslim democracy, where living standards have risen steadily for more than a decade and where the army last used force to stage a successful coup more than 30 years ago.
It also shattered fragile confidence among Turkey's allies about security in the Nato country, a leading member of the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State. Turkey had already been hit by repeated suicide bombings over the past year and is struggling to contain an insurgency by Kurdish separatists.
With expectations growing of heavy measures against dissent, European politicians warned Erdogan that the coup attempt did not give him a blank cheque to disregard the rule of law, and that he risked isolating himself internationally as he strengthens his position at home. Broadcaster NTV cited Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag as saying more arrests were expected.
Authorities have rounded up nearly 3,000 suspected military plotters, ranging from top commanders to foot soldiers, and the same number of judges and prosecutors after forces loyal to Erdogan crushed the attempted coup on Saturday.
Among those arrested is General Bekir Ercan Van, commander of the Incirlik air base from which U.S. aircraft launch airstrikes on Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq, an official said. Erdogan's chief military assistant was also detained, broadcaster CNN Turk said.
On Sunday, security forces clashed with remnants of the coup plotters at Istanbul's second airport and at an air base in central Turkey, an official said. Arrests were made and the situation was under control, the official said.
Erdogan said the coup had been put down by the "national will", blaming "those who cannot bear the unity of our country and are under the orders of masterminds to take over the state".
He frequently refers to "masterminds" who he says are bent on breaking up Turkey, in what appears a veiled reference to the West in general, and more specifically, the United States.
On Saturday, Labour Minister Suleyman Soylu told broadcaster Haberturk he believed Washington was behind the coup attempt. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry described public suggestions of a U.S. role as "utterly false", and said on Sunday Washington had had no advance intelligence of the coup. The Pentagon also announced on Sunday that operations from Turkey by the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State had resumed after Ankara reopened its air space, which had been closed during the coup attempt.
However, U.S. facilities were still operating on internal power sources after Turkey cut off the mains supply to the base. Kerry said the difficulty for U.S. planes using Incirlik may have been a result of Turkish aircraft flown in support of the coup using the base to refuel. The crackdown intensifies a long-standing push by Erdogan to root out the influence of followers of U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen.
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