ANKARA: The Turkish government askedparliament on Monday to extend emergency rule for another threemonths, almost a year after it was imposed in the wake of lastJuly´s failed military coup.
The request is expected to be approved by parliament, wherePresident Tayyip Erdogan´s AK Party has a comfortable majority.
It followed weekend ceremonies to mark the anniversary of theabortive coup in which around 250 people were killed.
Since emergency rule was imposed on July 20 last year, morethan 50,000 people have been arrested and 150,000 people have
been suspended in a crackdown which Erdogan´s opponents say haspushed Turkey on a path to greater authoritarianism.
The government says the purge is necessary to confrontsecurity challenges facing Turkey and to root out supporters of
the US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen who it says was behind thecoup attempt.
Gulen has denied any involvement.
In a series of public ceremonies to mourn people killed inthe coup attempt and celebrate those who thwarted it, Erdogan
defiantly stepped up his condemnation of the European Union andsaid he would bring back the death penalty if parliament
approved it.
Ties with the West were strained when European governmentsvoiced alarm at the scale of the crackdown, which continues.
Another 7,000 police, civil servants and academics weredismissed last week according to a decree published on Friday.
A statement from Prime Minister Binali Yildirim´s officesaid the cabinet requested that parliament extend emergency rule
by three months from Wednesday.