Turkey's main opposition leader against extended state of emergency

The leader of Turkey's main opposition party on Friday voiced opposition to the extension of a state of emergency imposed in the wake of a failed coup in July.

"The state of emergency should be terminated as quickly as possible," Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of the Republican People's Party (CHP), told the foreign press in Istanbul, saying its prolongation would strengthen the perception of a "counter-coup."

"Otherwise Turkey's democratic path would be in jeopardy," he cautioned.

A day earlier, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the government's intention to extend for another three months the state of emergency declared five days after the outbreak of a coup plot on July 15, in which more than 240 people were killed and nearly 2,200 others injured.

In the ongoing crackdown, more than 50,000 people, among them military officers, civil servants, lawyers, academicians and journalists, have been detained.

Kilicdaroglu stressed that an additional 93,000 others, including prominent intellectuals of the country, have been dismissed from their posts.

In his view, the statutory decrees adopted under the state of emergency have given the president unlimited power above the constitutional institutions, including instant detention of anyone and shutting down of media outlets at his own discretion.

The CHP leader urged the government to start a normalization process and put the country back on the democracy track.

The pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party had voiced its displeasure as well.

In a written statement released on Thursday, the party criticized the president and the ruling party for "ruling the country under decree-laws, ignoring the parliament, universal human rights and principles of democracy." Endit