The reports Sunday followed an intensive crackdown against the judiciary and the military in the wake of the botched coup Friday night against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
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“In democracies, decisions are made based on what the people say”. “The nation will never forget this betrayal”.
He reportedly surrendered after the failed coup attempt but was allegedly attacked by pro-government supporters.
“You can think about many motivations of people who staged this coup”.
The violence shocked the nation of nearly 80 million, once seen as a model Muslim democracy, where living standards have grown steadily for more than a decade and where the army last used force to stage a successful coup more than 30 years ago. Ilhan Varank died during clashes that lasted five hours. But it returned to normal operations on Saturday.
The damaged office of Turkey’s prime minister inside the parliament in Ankara, Turkey, July 16, 2016. Unsurprisingly, several hours after the coup was suppressed, official media reported the decision to arrest more than 2,000 judges affiliated with Gulen.
The Turkish media on Saturday cited two military figures as leading the coup attempt. One was Gen. Akin Ozturk, who retired from the military past year after commanding the air force, though he continued to serve on the country’s Supreme Military Council. But as the revolt started to fall apart, they quickly lost control of spots like the Bosporus bridge in Istanbul.
Speaking at a funeral for people killed in the failed coup, Erdogan said, “We will continue to cleanse the state institutions of all these viruses”, adding that the attempted coup by FETO, led by Fetullah Gulen, was put down by the national will.
The attempted coup happened because Turkey is deeply divided over President Erdogan’s project to transform the country and because of the contagion of violence from the war in Syria.
Kerry said he had no evidence Gulen was behind the plot, and urged Turkish authorities to compile evidence as rapidly as possible for any extradition request. “I never believed in a power higher than the power of the people”. TV footage showed large groups of unarmed civilians blocking the way of tanks and other military vehicles. But after they had a falling out three years ago, Gulen left Turkey and has been living in Pennsylvania. But he’s had a fraught relationship with the powerful military, which has carried out multiple coups over the past half-century.
The coup attempt began late Friday with tanks rolling into the streets of the capital, Ankara, and Istanbul as Erdogan was on vacation.
Prayers are being read simultaneously from Turkey’s 85,000 mosques at noon to rally the country to defend its democracy and honor those who died in an attempted military coup.
There were frequent reports of gunfire. Military representatives have not hidden their disapproval of Ankara’s policies vis-à-vis the Kurds.
But the failed attempt could still destabilize the US ally, which lies between Europe and the chaos of Syria. And Turkey’s security forces have been fighting Kurdish separatists in the southeast. US officials and North Atlantic Treaty Organization officials said since top military officials in Turkey are likely to stay in power, any disruption in USA operations there should be temporary.
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Air space around the US -operated Incirlik Air Base in Turkey was reopened Sunday, allowing American military to resume strikes against Islamic State targets. We will update this post with further information as we have it.
