Turkey coup attempt: Detentions 'tip of the iceberg'

Turkey's deputy prime minister has described as
"the tip of the iceberg" the infiltration of state
institutions by the group the government blames
for last Friday's failed coup.
Nurettin Canikli told the BBC that the number of
arrests could grow.
At least 60,000 state employees have been
detained or suspended in an internationally
criticised purge.
But Mr Canikli criticised Turkey's allies for "only
half-heartedly" condemning the "coup-makers".
The government accuses those loyal to the US-
based exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen of
orchestrating the coup. Mr Gulen has denied any
involvement.
"For 40 years this terror organisation has
infiltrated the furthest corners of the country -
ministries, all institutions and the private sector,"
Mr Canikli said.
"It's not just the judiciary, courts, the police, the
military. It includes education. And in fact,
education is the field that they have entered
best," he said.
Education ministry officials, private school
teachers and university heads of faculty together
account for more than half the people targeted in
the crackdown.
On Wednesday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip
Erdogan declared a state of emergency for three
months following the coup.
The state of emergency allows the president and
cabinet to bypass parliament when drafting new
laws and to restrict or suspend rights and
freedoms.
The move has drawn criticism from leaders in
France and Germany, as well as from top EU
officials. Turkey has applied to join the bloc, but
talks over its membership have been making very
slow progress.
Mr Canikli defended the post-coup measures,
saying they were only targeting people who had
been "100% identified".
He described the "terrorist" group behind the coup
as a greater threat to Turkey than the so-called
Islamic State militants or the Kurdish militant
group, PKK.
Members of the group, he said, had "practically
had their brains removed".
"They've been hypnotised. They're like robots.
Each one of them is a potential threat. They could
commit all sorts of attacks, including suicide
bombs."
Critics of Mr Erdogan have accused him of
consolidating power on a scale largely
unprecedented since Turkey's first democratic
elections in 1946 and of using the state of
emergency to acquire more power for the
presidency.