Turkey extends state of emergency for three more months

Turkey's parliament on Monday approved extending the existing state of emergency for three more months, almost a year after it was imposed in the wake of last July's attempted military coup.

The government earlier asked parliament to extend emergency rule via a statement from Prime Minister Binali Yildirim's office.

The motion was ratified by yes votes from the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Justice and Development Party and its ally, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).

The extension will become effective from Wednesday at 1 am local time (2200 GMT Tuesday).

Turkey declared emergency rule on July 20, 2016, after a coup attempt on July 15, 2016 left at least 249 people dead and more than 2,000 wounded.

Post-coup purge

The emergency rule helped the necessary legal environment to cleanse the state of US-based cleric Fetullah Gulen's network, Deputy Prime Minister Nurettin Canikli said at Parliament.

Canikli said those who infiltrated higher echelons of the state have been dismissed. But there are still more Gulen operatives within the system, he said.

The government says the purge is necessary to confront security challenges facing Turkey and to root out supporters of Gulen. Turkey blames the cleric's network for the attempted coup.

TRT World's Hasan Abdullah more.

Erdogan, Yildirim and MHP leader Devlet Bahceli had signalled in their speeches earlier that the state of emergency would be extended.

According to Turkey's constitution, a state of emergency can be declared for a maximum period of six months.

During the state of emergency, the Cabinet has the right to issue statutory decrees under the president of the republic without regard to routine procedures and restrictions in Article 91 of the constitution.

These decrees are first published in the official gazette and then submitted to Parliament for ratification.