Turkey has blocked access to the WikiLeaks website, the telecoms watchdog said on Wednesday, hours after it leaked thousands of ruling party e-mails just as Ankara grapples with the aftermath of a failed military coup.
Around 50,000 soldiers, police, judges and teachers have been suspended or detained since the attempted coup on the weekend, and Turkey’s Western allies have expressed concern over the crackdown’s reach.
WikiLeaks on Tuesday released nearly 3,00,000 e-mails from the Justice and Development Party (AKP) dating from 2010 to July 6 this year. Obtained before the attempted coup, the date of their publication was brought forward “in response to the government’s post-coup purges”, said WikiLeaks. The source of the e-mails was not connected to the coup plotters or to a rival political party or state, WikiLeaks said.
Meanwhile, Turkish jets scrambled on Wednesday to stop two coastguard vessels heading for Greek waters, local media reported. The Air Force planes took off from Turkish bases for “an operation against two Turkish coastguard boats identified as attempting to cross into Greek territorial waters”, said the private Dogan news agency. It was not yet clear whether the vessels were carrying suspected coup plotters.
