Turkish President Talks Death Penalty for Coup Plotters.
BLITZER: Welcome back to our special coverage of the Republican National Convention that just got under way in Cleveland a little while ago. We're here at the Quicken Loans Arena, they call it the "Q." We'll continue our coverage here in just a moment. But right now, I want to get us up to speed on two major international stories that we're following. The terror attack in France, a French prosecutor says the man responsible for killing 84 people in nice on Bastille Day searched for propaganda on the day of the attack but the interior minister says no ties have been established between the attacker and ISIS, no formal ties. Right now, six people are in custody in connection with that terror attack. We're also watching the fallout in Turkey after a failed military coup over the weekend. The violence killing 232 people in Turkey. More than 7,000 people suspected of having a role in that plot have been arrested. Listen now to the Turkish president, President Erdogan, speaking exclusively to CNN's Becky Anderson, through his translator, commenting specifically about the calls for the death penalty to be imposed against the coup plotters.</s>RECEP TAYYIP ERDOGAN, TURKISH PRESIDENT (through translation): There is a clear crime of treason. And your requests can never be rejected by our government. But of course, it will take a parliamentary decision for that to take action in the form of a constitutional measure. So the leaders will have to come together, discuss it. If they accept to discuss it, then as the president, I will approve any decision to come out of the parliament.</s>BLITZER: President Erdogan of Turkey speaking exclusively to CNN's Becky Anderson. Our national security commentator, the former House Intelligence Committee Chairman, Mike Rogers, is with us as well. This is Turkey, a key NATO ally, with important geography in Europe. All of a sudden the world is stunned Friday when there was this coup. No one anticipated -- I don't think there was any intelligence suggesting a coup was about to take place.</s>MIKE ROGERS, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY COMMENTATOR: No intelligence directly, Wolf, but there was lots of analytical product so back in about 2011 Erdogan started going leaders. In April, about 275 military officers were -- from the courts were let out of jail, basically, for a previous coup, what they claimed was an attempt, what many said was not really an attempt. So you have all this turmoil within the military ranks and by constitution -- people forget this -- the Turkish constitution says that the army is in charge of keeping Islamism out of the government. And so there was all of this brewing turmoil, Erdogan knew that he had to keep pushing back the army if he was going to continue down the path he was doing so there was a conflict stage. I think what you saw here was they felt that they were getting uncovered by intelligence and police agencies and felt that they had to move quickly. "They" being the --</s>BLITZER: And thousands of these coup plotters have been arrested. You just heard President Erdogan saying he's not ruling out the possibility that some will be executed for their role in this. What's going to be the reaction among other NATO allies, especially in Europe, if there's executions?</s>ROGERS: Well, there's already been a bit of turmoil over his comments saying if you bring back the death penalty you can't get in the E.U., that would be impossible. I think what you saw there from the prime minister was the determination --</s>BLITZER: The president.</s>ROGERS: Excuse me, yes, the president of the Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. This was his opportunity to clean out and have a military that's very pro-Erdogan. For a while there was not so -- the plotters were more secular and targeting those more secular military officers for some time. What you saw was a reaction to that, didn't go -- went very badly. The biggest loser, Wolf, is going to be maybe a secular Turkey moving forward.</s>BLITZER: What about the U.S. military, which relies on this NATO ally, Incirlik, the air base, it's a launching pad for a lot of U.S. air strikes against ISIS targets in Syria and in Iraq as well.</s>ROGERS: I don't think that's going to go away. As a matter of fact, a lot of those operations have been kicked back in. Erdogan understands the value of having the United States there and attacking folks who, by the way, have also been responsible for suicide attacks in Istanbul. So he'll see the value in that. He probably won't risk it but remember -- and I happened to be there at the start of the Iraq war, I went to Turkey with a few members to try to talk the president at that time prime minister newly elected not serving yet into allowing the Fourth Infantry Division to go through. So he's had a long kind of conflict with the U.S. military.</s>BLITZER: A very tense situation right now. Critically important. Mike Rogers, thanks very much.</s>ROGERS: Thanks.</s>BLITZER: That's it for me. I'll be back 5:00 p.m. eastern in "The Situation Room." Later, we'll be here throughout the night as this Republican National Convention unfolds. In the meantime, the news will continue right here on CNN in 60 seconds.