Turkey aims to prevent military from staging another coup: Deputy PM

ANKARA — Turkey aims to prevent its armed forces from again being used to stage a coup, Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said on Monday, after the government announced sweeping changes to the structure of the military over the weekend. His comments came after Turkey dismissed nearly 1,400 more members of its armed forces and stacked the top military council with government ministers on Sunday, moves designed by President Tayyip Erdogan to put him in full control of the military after a failed July 15-16 coup. Kurtulmus, speaking at a news conference following a Cabinet meeting, also criticized Germany’s decision to prevent Erdogan addressing an anti-coup rally in the city of Cologne by video link on Sunday, saying it smacked of “double standards.” Turkey summoned a senior German diplomat Monday, the embassy said, a day after a rally in Cologne in support of the Turkish president who was not permitted to address the crowd by video conference. “The charge d’affaires has been summoned to the Turkish foreign ministry at 1:00 pm (1000 GMT),” a spokeswoman for the German embassy told AFP, adding that the ambassador was not in town. Tens of thousands of supporters of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan rallied in Cologne on Sunday to show their opposition to a failed coup on July 15, which aimed to unseat the Turkish leader. Hours before the demonstration, Germany’s constitutional court banned an application to show live speeches from Turkey by politicians including Erdogan, amid fears they could work the crowd up further. The decision sparked anger in Turkey, with presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin calling the ban unacceptable and a “violation of the freedom of expression and the right to free assembly.” TurkishDeputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus also said that Turkey was considering the restructuring of its intelligence services. “The restructuring of intelligence units is on the agenda, just like it was for the Armed Forces,” Kurtulmus told the news conference. President Tayyip Erdogan wants to bring the national intelligence agency (MIT) and the military General Staff directly under the control of the presidency, Turkish officials have said, though this would require a constitutional amendment for which he would need the support of opposition parties.