The ensuing battle in the country’s two biggest cities, Istanbul and Ankara, left at least 46 people dead, with many of those in Ankara, the capital and heart of the military.
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Turkey’s armed forces “fully seized control” of the country Friday, according to a statement from the military published by a Turkish news agency, as gunfire was heard outside military headquarters, fighter jets buzzed over the capital and vehicles blocked two major bridges in Istanbul. At the Etimesgut armoured units training command, in the outskirts of Ankara, some soldiers who took part in the attempted coup were arrested by fellow officers or soldiers and handed over to police, the agency said.
Some 104 coup plotters were killed in the attempt to bring down the Turkish government, he said. According to Erdogan, “Turkey has a democratically elected government and president”.
The armed forces had taken power in the country to protect the democratic order and to maintain human rights, the military said in a statement sent by email and reported on Turkish TV channels.
In Istanbul, Turkish Gendarmerie and soldiers blocked entrances to bridges over the Bosphorus while tanks blocked Ataturk airport.
Erdogan flew into Ataturk airport early Saturday and was greeted by large crowds.
Mr Erdogan put the blame the coup on supporters of US-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen.
State-run Anadolu Agency reports 754 members of armed forces have been detained across Turkey.
He said the act was encourage by the “parallel structure” – his shorthand for followers of Fethullah Gulen, a USA -based Muslim cleric who he has repeatedly accused of attempting to foment an uprising among his followers in the judiciary and the military. Chief of staff Hulusi Akar, who had been reported held hostage by the rebels, has been rescued, a senior official said. NTV reported that one helicopter was shot down.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said defiantly today: “We will never leave our country to these occupiers”.
Women wave Turkish flags after troops involved in the coup surrendered on the Bosphorus Bridge in Istanbul, Turkey July 16, 2016.
Amateur footage emerging from Turkey during the night shows the drama as soldiers tried to carry out a coup.
Muslims Americans with origins from Syria, Palestine, Egypt and other countries also joined the group. The Alliance for Shared Values, a USA -based non-profit associated with Gulen, released a statement, saying the movement has “consistently denounced military interventions in domestic politics”. “I call for calm, restraint & full respect for Turkey’s democratic institutions and constitution”, Stoltenberg wrote, without saying what actions, if any, North Atlantic Treaty Organisation would take. That policy, according to analysts, backfired when Turkey took on a more active role in the US -led coalition against the extremists, who have since been blamed for a series of deadly bombings on Turkish soil. It has staged three coups since 1960 and forced out an Islamic government in 1997.
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“The military commanders have made it clear that the coup plotters violated the chain of command”, presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin told NTV.
