Turkish parliament votes to extend state of emergency for another 3 months
| IHA Photo


The Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM) adopted Monday a motion to extend the ongoing state of emergency in Turkey for another three more months, and for the fourth time since the failed coup attempt last year.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım had signaled in their speeches earlier that the state of emergency would be extended.

The extension is expected to become effective from Wednesday, a source, who wished to stay anonymous due to restrictions on talking to the media, said.

Opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) supported the move in the general assembly.

Turkey declared a state of emergency on July 20, 2016, after the defeated coup of July 15, 2016.

The state of emergency was initially ordered by Parliament on July 21, and was imposed in the wake of the July 15 coup attempt.

The failed coup attempt, which left 250 people dead and nearly 2,200 injured, was organized by followers of the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) led by Fetullah Gülen, who has lived in self-imposed exile on a 400-acre property in the foothills of the Pocono Mountains in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania since 1999.

Gülen has led a long-running campaign to overthrow the Turkish state through the infiltration of public institutions, particularly the military, police and judiciary, forming what the government has called the "parallel structure."