Erdogan had been on a seaside vacation when tanks rolled into the streets of Ankara and Istanbul.
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Government officials blamed the coup attempt on a USA -based moderate Islamic cleric, Fethullah Gulen.
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said 2,839 military personnel had been detained so far.
Describing the attempted coup as a “black stain” on Turkey’s democracy, Yildirim said that 161 people had been killed in the night of violence and 1,440 wounded.
This toll did not appear to include 104 rebel soldiers killed overnight, bringing the overall death toll from the bloodshed to 265. This government brought to power by the people is in charge.
Erdogan’s Islamist government has also been accused of playing an ambiguous – even double-sided – role in Syria. Reuters reported that a military jet shot down a military helicopter over the city, and that a bomb that exploded at the Parliament building.
People faced off with troops that had blocked the bridges over the Bosporus, linking the Asian and European sides of Istanbul. “Among them are high-ranking military officers”.
He pointed out that it was only a small clique of the Turkish armed forces and not the army as whole that was involved in the coup.
Nothing was initially heard from the Turkish president until an extraordinary television interview, in which he addressed the nation from a mobile phone held up by the presenter.
“First and most importantly, massive numbers of private citizens flooded the streets of Istanbul in response to President Erdogan’s call for them to defend democracy”, Bryza told Trend July 16.
The jet of Erdogan, who had been holidaying on the coast, was initially prevented from touching down in Istanbul, but forces loyal to him regained control of the airport after fierce fighting. “It has angered some sections of the security establishment that believe that they can do a better job because Erdogan is just playing politics with everything”, he said. Uncertainty followed as the military issued a declaration it had seized control of Turkey. Gulen used to be an ally of Erdogan, but turned into his fierce opponent.
“I’m sure that people will wonder about allegations of who may have instigated this and where the support came from”, Kerry said, in a nod to the accusations swirling around Gulen and his alleged supporters in the Turkish military.
The senior aide to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that Tehran backed Turkey’s elected government against the coup but it expected Ankara to do the same when it came to Syria. If this country hides a terrorist, this country is not a friend of Turkey and it leads a hidden war against Turkey.
The president claimed his hotel on Turkey’s Aegean coast was bombed after he left and that his general secretary, Hulusi Akar, was abducted by the coup makers.
Some 110 South Koreans are estimated to be stuck at Ataturk airport in Turkey’s largest city, according to the ministry.
The cleric has lived in self-imposed exile in the United States for years. Turkey has faced increasing turmoil and the attempt to overthrow President Erdogan will not be the last of it.
The Azerbaijani people and state, which always stand by the Turkish people and state, strongly condemn this crime against the Constitution and democracy of Turkey and consider it unacceptable, Ilham Aliyev stressed.
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North Atlantic Treaty Organisation chief Jens Stoltenberg welcomed what he called the “strong support shown by the people and all political parties to democracy and to the democratically elected government of Turkey”, a key member of the alliance.
