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At a mass detention in Ankara, dozens of detainees were forced to kneel partially stripped.
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Speaking
through his translator in an exclusive interview with CNN's Becky
Anderson, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called the failed
military coup a "clear crime of treason."
The
Turkish people have made it clear they want death for the "terrorists"
who plotted the coup, Erdogan said in his first interview since the July
15 attempt.
"The people now have
the idea, after so many terrorist incidents, that these terrorists
should be killed, that's where they are, they don't see any other
outcome to it," he said.
"Why
should I keep them and feed them in prisons, for years to come? That's
what the people say," he said. "They want a swift end to it, because
people lost relatives, lost neighbors, lost children ... they're
suffering, so
the people are very sensitive and we have to act very
sensibly and sensitively." The
comments come in the wake of the President's vow over the weekend that
those responsible "will pay a heavy price for this act of treason."
A
total of 8,777 officers from the Turkish Ministry of Interior have so
far been removed from office, according to the state-run Anadolu news
agency.
Among the arrested are 103 generals and admirals, a third of the general-rank command of the Turkish military. It
would take a parliamentary decision in the form of a constitutional
measure to make the death penalty an option, Erdogan said.
"Leaders
will have to get together and discuss it and if they accept to discuss
it then I as President will approve any decision that comes out of the
parliament," he said.
Turkey
abolished the death penalty for peacetime crimes in 2002, followed by a
total ban in 2004 as part of a series of human rights reforms undertaken
for its membership bid for the European Union.
If Turkey does reintroduce the death penalty, it won't be joining the European Union, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said earlier Monday.