“I am the chief commonder”, he said.
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However eyewitnesses claimed there were scenes of unrest as a military helicopter reportedly opened fire over Anakra. Tanks have been firing near parliament, Stocker said, while soldiers are occupying parts of Taksim, in the popular central district of Istanbul.
Nothing in NATO’s founding 1949 Washington Treaty says anything about intervening in the internal or political affairs of an alliance member, and Turkey kept its NATO membership following past military coups.
“We are angry at the military because they are killing us, they are killing civilians”, one protester told AFP, asking not to be named. Even if it fails, the coup attempt could destabilise a pivotal country in the region.
Military units patrolled the streets and seized key bridges as the Turkish military declared martial law and said in a statement read out on Turkish television that it had “fully seized control” of the country.
In an earlier statement sent by email and reported on TV channels, the military said it had taken power to protect the democratic order and to maintain human rights.
For much of the night, fighter jets flew low over Istanbul while armored vehicles streamed across a main bridge in the city.
The U.S. State Department on Friday advised its citizens in Turkey shelter in place and not attempt to go to the U.S. Embassy or consulates amid an ongoing military coup.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in an interview over FaceTime with the CNN Turk, dismissed the action as “an attempt at an uprising by a minority within our armed forces”.
According to a state-run television station, a bomb hit the Turksih parliament building in Ankara around 2:50 a.m. local time, just minutes after the Turkish national intelligence spokesman said the coup had been “repelled”. He said: “Some people illegally undertook an illegal action outside of the chain of command”.
He told state news agency Anadolu the coup is “an attempt against democracy and the will of the people”. “The people have shown that they stand in solidarity with democracy and the elected government”.
The Turkish military on Friday, July 15, 2016 said it has taken control of the country's government. He called on people to take to the streets to oppose the move. And Turkey’s security forces have been involved in fighting with Kurdish separatists in the southeast.
A dozen tanks were seen moving toward a palace used by the prime minister and deputy prime ministers.
The coup plotters sought to reassure the worldwide community, saying in their statement: “All our global agreements and commitments retain their validity”.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, speaking jointly after talks in Moscow, both said they hoped bloodshed would be avoided.
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The government remained steadfast all along: “There are certain groups who took the arms trusted to them by the state and pointed them toward state employees”, Prime Minister Yildirim said. The Dogan news agency reported that soldiers fired on a group of people trying to cross the Bosporus bridge to protest the attempted coup, and that some people have been hurt. “We hope that all of our good relationships with all countries will continue”.
