From Washington, this is VOA news. I'm Michael Brown reporting. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan escalated the purge of workers Tuesday suspected of taking part in the coup attempt by firing more than 20,000 teachers and civil servants.

VOA European correspondent Luis Ramirez reports from Istanbul.

As the crackdown continues, Turkey's minorities worry that rising nationalism could one again make them targets.

In Istanbul's Okmeydani neighborhood, members of the Alevi sect of Islam watched the news with concern.

"As an Alevi, I am very worried. I'm really expecting something to happen because we do not know where this country is heading."

With Erdoğan's power reaffirmed and consolidated, there are new questions of whether the defeat of the coup strengthens democracy or deepens divides.

Luis Ramirez, VOA news, Istanbul.

President Barack Obama spoke to Turkish President Erdoğan by phone Tuesday as tensions escalate in Turkey over the fallout from the failed coup.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest says the president pledges his support for the democratically elected government. Since Friday's coup attempt, the U.S. has urged Turkey to show restraint, keeping its response within the rule of the law.

The International Olympic Committee is delaying its decision on whether to ban all Russian teams from competing in next month's Rio Olympics over allegations of an elaborate doping scheme.

The executive board held an emergency meeting Tuesday in Switzerland, decided that the IOC would not impose an immediate ban on the Russians.

IOC President Thomas Bach: "We will have to take a very difficult decision also in legal terms. This is on the one hand between a collective ban for all Russian athletes, and on the other hand the natural right to individual justice for every clean athlete in the world." :IOC President Thomas Bach.

This is VOA news.

In the U.S., delegates to the Republican National Convention are participating in a roll call vote at this hour to formally nominate Donald Trump as the party's 2016 presidential candidate.

The vote considered a formality comes on the second day of the convention where two of Trump's children and former presidential candidates Ben Carson and Chris Christie would deliver addresses tonight over a theme of making America great again.

Trump's campaign is likely hoping for a different response ??? tonight's speakers after accusations part of Trump's wife, Melania's speech Monday night, was lifted from Michelle Obama's address at the Democratic Convention in 2008, a claim denied by Trump's campaign manager.

The U.S. is condemning North Korea's test-firing of three ballistic missiles on Tuesday. Both the U.S. and South Korea said the missiles Pyongyang launched flew between 500 and 600 kilometers before falling into the sea off the east coast of the Korean Peninsula.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest: "North Korea is isolated like never before. The international community is united like never before and hopefully that will lead to a situation where North Korea makes a strategic decision to come out of the shadows of the international community and try to rejoin the international community. But before we can do that, they're going to have to make a clear commitment to ending these kinds of provocations and abiding by the nuclear, I'm sorry, by the U.N. Security Council Resolutions that govern both their nuclear weapons program and their ballistic missile program."

North Korea's latest action comes a week after it threatened to retaliate against South Korea over the deployment of the THAAD missile defense system.

The U.S. and South Korea recently agreed to deploy the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system to defend against the North increasing nuclear and missile capabilities.

A top Vatican envoy is urging both South Sudan's President Salva Kiir and First Vice President Riek Machar to peacefully end the wave of violence that gripped the capital, Juba, last week, leaving hundreds of people dead and thousands of others displaced from their homes.

Cardinal Peter Turkson met with Kiir Tuesday and delivered a message directly from Pope Francis.

Kiir strongly opposes a proposal by a regional body, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, and the African Union to deploy regional troops to Juba to stabilize the capital and act as a buffer between forces loyal to the president and those loyal to Machar.

The details on these stories and more news, join United States at voanews.com. I'm Michael Brown reporting in Washington.

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