6,000 PEOPLE HAVE BEEN DETAINED AFTER COUPLE FAILED----TURKEY's JUSTICE MINISTER

Turkey's justice minister says that some 6,000 people have been detained following a failed coup. The crackdown comes after Friday's failed coup, and Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag says the "cleansing" will continue, and that he expects more people to be detained, NPR's Leila Fadel in Istanbul reports. Bozdag also called on the United States to stop protecting Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, who lives in Pennslyvania and has been accused by Turkey's government of orchestrating the attempted coup.




 "The United States will not protect a person who attempted such an event against Turkey," he said.

 Gulen has denied any involvement in the coup and criticized military intervention. He was previously an ally of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's president, before their relationship soured. In a profile of Gulen, NPR's Greg Myre wrote: Erdogan and Gulen used to be buddies. Both were considered moderate Islamists.


 Gulen encouraged his many followers to support Erdogan, who in turn helped raise the profile of Gulen, who runs a vast network of Islamic schools worldwide, including more than 100 charter schools in the United States. Both men benefited from the relationship.

But they had a falling out in 2013 over a corruption investigation that targeted Erdogan and some of his closest allies. Erdogan apparently believed Gulen's allies in the judiciary were responsible for the inquiry, and responded by dismissing many in the judicial system considered close to Gulen, a powerful political force in his own right.


 In a statement by the U.S. State Department on Saturday, Sec. John Kerry urged the Turkish government to abide by due process and its international obligations as it investigates the attempted coup. He also warned against claiming the United States played any role in the events, and that continued claims were false and would be "harmful to our bilateral relations."

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