Friday night’s sudden uprising by a faction of the military appeared to take the government – and much of the world – by surprise.
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On Sunday, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said the coup had failed and life has returned to normal.
“This virus, like a cancer, has spread throughout the state apparatus”. “However, our duty is not over”.
“They may have tanks but we have our faith”.
“Another calamity has been thwarted”, Yildirim said. Nearly exactly half of Turkey’s voters backed Erdogan in the last election, so a military regime would have had to stay in power for a long time.
He was previously an ally of Erdogan before their relationship soured. He has shaken up the government, cracked down on dissent, restricted the media and renewed fighting with Kurdish rebels. He is eager “to continue the witch-hunt, further worsening the state of Turkey’s crumbling democracy”.
In total, 161 civilians and regular troops were killed, according to government figures.
Earlier in the day, Erdogan attended the funerals of other victims in Fatih mosque. “Any attempts to overthrow the country is a betrayal to our unity and is treason”.
Judicial authorities said 2,745 judges would also be sacked in the wake of the coup bid. The ministers will also be meeting for breakfast with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.
It would have been equally dead if the coup had partially succeeded and the army had really split, for that would have meant civil war.
Intelligence services chief Hakan Fidan told local paper Milliyet that the government had become fully aware of the impending coup attempt hours before it was launched.
Thousands responded late yesterday to a new call by the president to pour into the squares to celebrate the “victory of democracy” with mass rallies of flag-waving Turks reported in cities including Ankara, Istanbul and Izmir.
Gozde Kurt, a 16-year-old student at the rally in Istanbul, said: “Just a small group from Turkish armed forces stood up against our government… but we, the Turkish nation, stand together and repulse it back”.
The move comes as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan continues his “cleansing operation” after the attempt to oust him on Friday night by members of the country’s military. He had indicated a shake-up of the military was imminent and had also taken steps to increase his influence over the judiciary.
The opposition had appealed the legislation to the high court unsuccessfully, but Erdogan has not yet signed it into law.
In the United States, a lawyer hired by the Turkish government has lodged numerous accusations against a network of about 150 publicly funded charter schools started by followers of Gulen, whose philosophy blends a mystical form of Islam with staunch advocacy of democracy, education, science and interfaith dialogue. He strongly denies the government’s charges.
Dion requested the government of Turkey to call for restraint and to oppose all acts of violence.
“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”.
Gulen has denied any involvement in the attempted coup, saying “there is a possibility that it could be a staged coup”. The military, founded on secularist ideals, has been a staunch opponent of Gulen.
“This doesn’t worry me at all”.
Erdogan appealed to President Barack Obama in a Saturday speech to extradite the “man who lives in Pennsylvania” to Turkey.
Gulen said he would comply with any extradition ruling but was “not really worried” about one. “This is a test. And we will see who passes it”, he said.
In March, for instance, the government seized control of Zaman, a major Turkish newspaper with ties to the Gulen movement. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in line with government rules. Akin Ozturk, head of the air force until 2015 and identified by three senior officials as one of the suspected masterminds of the coup plot, was among those held.
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Turkish security forces and putschists briefly clashed at an air base in the central city of Konya on Sunday, a Turkish official said. The group had allegedly been responsible for a planned attack on Erdogan’s hotel, and he later described a bombing there after his departure. He quashed the probe by firing scores of police officers, prosecutors and judges.
