Baku, Azerbaijan, June 3
By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:
Turkey will never face a coup again and the country's people will severely punish coup supporters, Turkish TRT Haber TV channel quoted the country's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan as saying on June 3.
Erdogan underscored that the Turkish government saved the country from facing developments similar to those in Syria and Egypt.
"The external forces, including the person residing in the state of Pennsylvania [Fethullah Gulen] used the Turkish opposition to their own advantage," Erdogan said.
There is much evidence that Turkey's oppositional Republican People's Party has close ties to the Gulen movement, the prime minister stressed.
Erdogan went on to add that the external forces intend to hinder Turkey's economic development by using political forces in the country.
"Despite the propaganda and all the efforts made against Turkey, Ankara will remove all these obstacles," Erdogan said.
The prime minister said that the latest developments [the protests in May, 2013, the corruption scandal and wiretapping of phone conversations of the government representatives] were costly for Turkey.
On Feb. 25, several Turkish media outlets said the telephone conversations of some 7000 people close to the country's ruling party, opposition parties and Prime Minister's family members, were wiretapped as part of an anti-terrorist operation against members of the 'Salam' organization in 2011.
The telephone conversations of Turkish intelligence head, Hakan Fidan were also wiretapped under these anti-terrorist operations.
After this, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Gulen by saying that representatives of his movement stand behind the wiretapping of the phone conversations.
Edited by C.N.