Turkey will follow France's example in temporarily suspending the European Convention on Human Rights following its declaration of a state of emergency.
A religious school in the Kasimpasa neighborhood in Istanbul where Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan was born. Photo: AFP
The Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said the state of emergency imposed following last week's coup attempt could end within one and a half months.
France declared its own state of emergency following last November's attacks by Islamist militants in Paris.
The Turkish justice minister said the move was aimed at averting a possible second military coup.
With authorities cracking down on tens of thousands of people in the judiciary, education, military and civil service after last weekend's failed military coup, a lawmaker from the main opposition party said the state of emergency created "a way of ruling that paves the way for abuse".
Germany has called for the measure to be ended as quickly as possible, while an international lawyers' group warned Turkey against using it to subvert the rule of law and human rights, pointing to allegations of torture and ill-treatment of people held in the mass roundup.
Announcing the state of emergency late on Wednesday, President Erdogan said it would allow his government to take swift measures against supporters of the coup, in which 246 people were killed and hundreds wounded.
For some Turks, the move has raised fears of a return to the days of martial law after a 1980 military coup, or the height of a Kurdish insurgency in the 1990s when much of the largely Kurdish southeast was under a state of emergency declared by the previous government.
About 60,000 soldiers, police, judges, civil servants and teachers have been suspended, detained or have been placed under investigation since the coup was put down.
Detained Turkish soldiers who allegedly took part in a military coup arrive in a bus at the courthouse in Istanbul on 20 July. Photo: AFP
Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek has moved to calm nervous financial markets and dispel comparisons with the past, through news conferences and Twitter posts.
"The state of emergency in Turkey won't include restrictions on movement, gatherings and free press etc. It isn't martial law of 1990s," he wrote on Twitter.
"I'm confident Turkey will come out of this with much stronger democracy, better functioning market economy & enhanced investment climate."
- Reuters