“As someone who suffered under multiple military coups during the past five decades, it is especially insulting to be accused of having any link to such an attempt”.
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“We are in charge and we will continue exercising our powers until the end”.
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, who has spoken on media via telephone throughout the night, is believed to be in Ankara. The rebels had also seized the state broadcaster in Ankara.
After hours of chaos and violence unseen in decades, Erdogan ended uncertainty over his whereabouts and flew into Istanbul before dawn on Saturday.
According to the latest reports, 200 unarmed soldiers at the Turkish military headquarters have surrendered to police.
Turkey’s military staged a coup late Friday, imposing martial law with tanks on the streets of one of America’s key North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies – taking the world by surprise, NBC News reported.
It’s not clear. A lawyer for the Turkish government said in a statement seen by the Associated Press that “there are indications of direct involvement” in the coup attempt of a cleric who is living in exile in Pennsylvania. Arrests of officers were under way and it would go higher up the ranks, culminating in the cleansing of the military, he said.
“We do not support any government or any military that is not democratic”, said Arif Yilmaz of the Boston Turkish Cultural Center.
Turkey’s North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies lined up to condemn the coup.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said he spoke to Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and called for respect for democracy.
Shortly after, a faction of the army released a statement saying that a “peace council” was running the country, and it had launched the coup “to ensure and restore constitutional order, democracy, human rights and freedoms”. Video footage showed the bridge being blocked by military vehicles. Soldiers blocked entry to Istanbul’s main Ataturk Airport, where four tanks were stationed, according to the private Dogan news agency. He later emerged, and by Saturday morning, the coup appeared to be unraveling.
But the sounds of explosions and continued to ring out in the capital.
An Islamist and populist who has been the dominant figure in the country for more than a decade, Mr Erdogan came to power promising to overhaul the economy and give the country’s rural, more religious majority a bigger voice in the capital. A nearby mosque made an anti-coup announcement over its loudspeakers. Crowds defied orders to stay indoors, gathering at major squares in Istanbul and Ankara, waving flags and chanting.
At least 160 died and over 1,100 people were injured during a violent uprising that started on Friday evening in Turkey. NTV reported six dead had been brought to that hospital. He said that 90 others had also been killed, adding that 47 of them were civilians.
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Yildirim said a country that would stand by Gulen won’t be a friend of Turkey and will be considered at war with the country.
