Reports on social media and in local press described tanks in the streets and military planes and helicopters overhead in Ankara. Most of the dead are reported to be civilians.
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The Turkish government has throttled social media at least three times this year, said Access Now, a digital rights advocacy group. We have consistently denounced military interventions in domestic politics.
The military has moved to the base of the Taksim monument at Taksim square in Istanbul, AP reported, adding that random shots are being fired into a crowd of government supporters. This coup was executed while President Tayyip Erdogan was on vacation. Cars are flowing from the European side of the city to the Asian, but soldiers and military vehicles are blocking the path to the European side.
Others sought to run across the bridge that had been closed all night, kicking the helmets and protective gear left behind by the rebel soldiers as they passed.
Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion said on Twitter he is “very concerned about reports from Turkey”.
A military helicopter, which had been involved in an attack against a Turkish satellite operator earlier, has been downed in the Golbasi district of Ankara.
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim told private NTV television: “it is correct that there was an attempt”, when asked if there was a coup.
Military jets were heard flying over Ankara and Istanbul.
The coup leaders, claiming to speak for the entire Turkish Armed Forces, said they’d done so in the name of protecting democracy – despite the fact that Erdogan and his party were democratically elected.
It’s early still, but these are all signals that the coup hasn’t successfully created the perception of inevitability – which means the armed forces will remain divided, and the coup will likely fail.
State broadcaster TRT said the military had declared martial law and a curfew, in a statement signed by a group calling itself the “Council for Peace in the Homeland”. The network appeared to have been restored to government control.
CNN-Turk said a group of soldiers entered the headquarters of the Dogan Media group, which owns the TV channel.
If you’ve been following the ongoing military coup attempt in Turkey at all, you might have noticed the Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan made an odd reference to the Keystone state, saying that Turkey “can’t be managed from Pennsylvania”. A nationalist leader named Mustafa Kemal, known as Ataturk, or “Father of the Turks”, molded the nation, and its military, based on a staunchly secular Islamic faith and a deeply held Turkish national identity.
NATO calls for calm: NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said in a statement: “I have just spoken to the Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu”.
Turkey’s lira plunged as much as 6% against the dollar, the most since 2010, as news of the coup broke.
He said it is possible that a military government could look to strengthen its ties with the West, but that there is no way at this point to know for sure. Later, it turned out to be a coup attempt, which shocked us even more. Additionally, tanks are said to have opened fire near parliament.
Parliament speaker Ismail Kahraman said he had been in touch with other parties and they were united against the military takeover.
A lawyer for the Turkish government, Robert Amsterdam, said that “there are indications of direct involvement” in the coup attempt of Fethullah Gulen, a Muslim cleric who is living in exile in Pennsylvania. He’s fought to transform the once largely ceremonial post of president and make it the main seat of power.
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Travellers have also been advised to high degree of caution in the rest of the country.
