Turkey yesterday declared a state of emergency across the country for three months in the wake of last week’s failed coup attempt.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the state of emergency in a live television broadcast, saying it is not against democracy, rule of law or freedoms, but rather is aimed at protecting these values and strengthening them.
These are “necessary precautions vis a vis the threat of terror, democracy, rule of law. The measure is to protect basic rights and freedoms,” he said following National Security Council and cabinet meetings in Ankara.
Erdogan also tried to assure markets and investors, saying economic reforms would continue.“There will be no liquidity problem,” he said.
The last state of emergency in Turkey was lifted in 2002 in two provinces where it remained in force after having been in place in various areas of the south-east for 15 years.
Meanwhile, President Erdogan has said he believes foreign countries may have been involved in the failed coup attempt, though he declined to name any.
Speaking through an interpreter in an interview with broadcaster Al Jazeera, Erdogan also dismissed suggestions that he was becoming authoritarian and that Turkish democracy was under any threat.
“We will remain within a democratic parliamentary system, we will never step away from it,” he said.
President Erdogan speaking during a news conference in Ankara yesterday.
