Gen. Umit Dundar, the newly appointed acting chief of the general staff, said officers from the Air Force, the military police and the armored units were mainly involved in the attempt.
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NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said he spoke to Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and called for respect for democracy.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan sent a mass text message to Turkish mobile phones on Saturday imploring Turks to “stand up” for democracy and peace.
In light of a curfew instituted by the military, Erdogan called on citizens to take to the streets in a show of support for the government.
Prime Minister Benali Yildirim said 2,839 military personnel have been detained in connection with the attempted coup. One Istanbul hospital said at least 150 wounded people were admitted for treatment.
Earlier, around 30 pro-coup soldiers had surrendered their weapons after being surrounded by armed police in Istanbul’s central Taksim square.
Meanwhile, Turkey?s state news agency said 17 police officers have been killed in helicopter attacks. Several hundreds of people poured out on the streets in Istanbul as President Erdogan made an appeal to resist the coup.
An explosion was reportedly heard near a building that housed a state-run television station in Ankara. Discarded gear was strewn on the ground.
If successful, the overthrow of Erdogan, who has ruled Turkey since 2003, would be one of the biggest shifts in the Middle East in years, transforming one of the most important US allies while war rages on its border. Some flag-waving people climbed onto the tanks. “Let us gather in our squares, at our airports as the people and let that minority group come upon as with their tanks and artillery and do whatever they wish to do”, he told CNN Turk by Facetime, according to the AP.
The United States has shown little interest so far to Turkey’s requests for his extradition.
The prime minister, however, said there was an “attempt” at a coup.
He has used this term in the past to refer to Fethullah Gulen, a US-based Muslim cleric he accuses of fomenting unrest.
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The action began Friday night, with fighter jets buzzing overhead, gunfire erupting outside military headquarters and vehicles blocking two major bridges in Istanbul. A failed coup attempt could still destabilize a pivotal country. There was still a “small problem” in the capital, Erdogan said in his speech at Istanbul airport. “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”.
