Erdogan threatens to ‘chop off traitors’ heads’

SARBEDA, Rohingya mother ISTANBUL: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday threatened to “chop off the heads” of traitors, in a speech marking the first anniversary of the failed coup bid that aimed to oust him from power.

“First of all, we will chop off the heads of those traitors,” Erdogan told a rally here, prompting cries from the crowds that capital punishment should be restored.

Reaffirming previous comments, he vowed to sign any bill passed by Parliament to restore capital punishment, a move that would end Ankara’s European Union membership ambitions.

“We are a state governed by rule of law. If it comes to me after Parliament, I will sign it,” he said.

Erdogan also said the suspects being tried for involvement in the failed coup should wear uniforms like the notorious orange jumpsuits used at United States military prison at Guantanamo Bay.

A controversy erupted last week when one suspect was seen going into court with the word “hero” in large letters in English on a T-shirt.

Erdogan was speaking to hundreds of thousands of supporters at the bridge over the Bosphorus that saw some of the fiercest fighting on the night of the July 15 attempted coup last year.

“We paid a price ... but there is no price for the independence and future we obtained in return for that sacrifice,” he said, referring to the deaths of 249 people at the hands of the plotters.

He lashed out at claims from the opposition that the government had foreknowledge of the coup, and let it play out to its own advantage in a so-called “controlled” putsch. AFP