Turkey's parliament voted overnight to extend emergency rule by three months in a move which the government said was needed to sustain a purge of supporters of the US-based Muslim cleric accused of orchestrating July's failed coup, Anadolu reports.
Emergency rule, first imposed in Turkey after an attempted putsch on July 15 and then extended on October 11, enables the government to bypass parliament in enacting new laws and to limit or suspend rights and freedoms when deemed necessary.
The extension, effective from January 19, comes as Turkey reels from a series of attacks by Islamist or Kurdish militants, most recently on Sunday when a lone gunman shot dead 39 people in an Istanbul nightclub during New Year celebrations.
Ankara accuses Pennsylvania-based preacher Fethullah Gulen and his supporters, whom it terms the Gulenist Terror Organisation (FETO), of being behind the July coup attempt. Gulen denies the allegations.
More than 41,000 people have been jailed pending trial in connection with the attempted coup out of 100,000 who have faced investigation. Some 120,000 people, including soldiers, police officers, teachers, judges and journalists, have been suspended or dismissed since the coup, although thousands of them have since been restored to their posts, Reuters reports.
"There was an illegal act by a group within the military that was acting out of the chain of military command. Our people should know that we will not allow any activity that would harm democracy," Turkey's prime minister Binali Yildirim told NTV television.
