Scores of members from Turkish armed forces were arrested across the country after a coup attempt blamed by the government on supporters of US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported.
754 members of Turkish armed forces were arrested for involvement in the coup, the agency said. A Turkish official added that 29 colonels and 5 generals had been removed from their posts. At least 194 people were killed in the turmoil, with 1,154 people wounded.
Jets bombed near Turkey’s presidential palace in Ankara early Saturday as an army faction attempted to bring down the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Plumes of black smoke were seen rising over the Bestepe district where the palace is located, NTV television reported.
A Turkish army faction backed by tanks and fighter jets staged an attempted coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday but the strongman returned to Istanbul defiantly claiming to have regained control.
Soldiers and tanks took to the streets late on Friday and multiple explosions rang out throughout the night in Ankara and Istanbul, the two biggest cities of the strategic NATO country of 80 million people.
At least 60 people have been killed and 336 detained in a night of violence across Turkey sparked when elements in the military staged an attempted coup, a senior Turkish official said.
The majority of those killed were civilians and most of those detained are soldiers, said the official, without giving further details.
Erdogan predicted that the move would fail and crowds of supporters of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) came out onto the streets to try to block the putsch.
After hours of chaos unseen in decades, the president ended uncertainty over his whereabouts, flying into Istanbul airport in the early hours of the morning where he made a defiant speech and was greeted by hundreds of supporters.
Erdogan denounced the coup attempt as “treachery” but said he was carrying out his functions and would keep on working “to the end”.
“What is being perpetrated is a treason and a rebellion. They will pay a heavy price for this act of treason,” Erdogan said at Istanbul’s airport. “We will not leave our country to occupiers.”
Hours after Turkish troops claimed they had seized power, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said those responsible for the attempted coup will pay a ‘heavy price’.
With Turkish officials insisting the coup was faltering and Erdogan ordering the army to shoot down planes being used by the plotters, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said 120 of those involved had been arrested.
While addressing a press conference upon his arrival at Istanbul’s Ankara Airport, Erdogan said the uprising was an act of treason.
#BREAKING: Erdogan says his hotel on Turkey’s Aegean coast bombed after he left
— AFP news agency (@AFP) 16 July 2016
@AFP @BreakingNewzman there is no such evidence but erdogan again grip on power with coming more witch hunt
— AlkanMelik (@MelikAkan) 16 July 2016
Earlier, the Turkish president had vowed that the attempted coup would be put down and crowds answered his call to defy a curfew order and take to the streets to support him.
Gunfire and explosions rocked both the main city Istanbul and capital Ankara in a chaotic night, but by the early hours of Saturday there were indications that the coup was crumbling.
İSTANBUL-BAYRAMPAŞA ŞUAN pic.twitter.com/AhjuOTA5Kl
— HZ. ENES (@Ayyinemikeder) 15 July 2016
“We will overcome this,” Erdogan had said, speaking on a video call to a mobile phone held up to the camera by an announcer on the Turkish sister station of CNN. He called on his followers to take to the streets to defend his government and said the coup plotters would pay a heavy price.
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said the elected government remained in office.
“Some people illegally undertook an illegal action outside
of the chain of command,” Yildirim said in comments broadcast by private channel NTV.
“The government elected by the people remains in charge. This government will only go when the people say so.”
Crowds of people, some waving Turkish flags, gathered in major squares in Istanbul and Ankara to show support for the elected government. Police urged people to leave Istanbul’s Taksim square, warning military aircraft could open fire.
Turkey’s top general was taken hostage at the military headquarters in the capital Ankara, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
“General Hulusi Akar has been taken hostage by a group in the military who attempted an uprising,” the agency said citing “credible sources”.
Access was restricted in Turkey on Friday to Facebook Inc, Twitter Inc and Alphabet Inc’s YouTube shortly after news that a military coup was under way, according to two internet monitoring groups.
Turkey Blocks, a group that monitors internet shutdowns in the country, and Dyn, which monitors internet performance and traffic globally, both reported it was difficult or impossible to access social media services in Turkey.
Turkey’s EU minister calls on soldiers to disobey orders
Turkey’s minister for EU Affairs, Omer Celik, called on soldiers to disobey orders. He made the comment on broadcaster NTV.
Fighter jet downs military helicopter over Ankara
A Turkish F-16 fighter jet shot down a military helicopter being used by a faction within the army attempting the coup, broadcaster NTV said.
The state-run Anadolu agency meanwhile said 17 police officers had been killed in an attack on their offices in the city.
‘Military does not condone coup’
Turkey’s armed forces do not condone the coup against the government, the commander of the special forces said, after a group the government has described as a small military faction said it had seized power.
General Zekai Aksakalli made the comment to broadcaster NTV, adding that the attempted coup would not succeed and that his special forces were in the service of the people.
Turkish officials blamed the attempted coup on followers of Fethullah Gulen, an influential cleric in self-imposed exile in the United States who once supported Erdogan but became a nemesis. The pro-Gulen Alliance for Shared Values said it condemned any military intervention in domestic politics.
After serving as prime minister from 2003, Erdogan was elected president in 2014 with plans to alter the constitution to give the previously ceremonial presidency far greater executive powers.
Turkey has enjoyed an economic boom during his time in office and has dramatically expanded its influence across the region. But opponents say his rule has become increasingly authoritarian.
Pakistan express solidarity with Turkish people
Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Syed Tariq Fatemi has telephoned Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavusoglu and expressed solidarity of people and government of Pakistan with the Turkish Government and democratic institutions.
The Turkish Foreign Minister thanked the government and the people of Pakistan for showing resolve to stand by democracy in Turkey. He said this is what we expected from a brother county.
He said they are also thankful to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for his message of support for Turkish democracy and the government.
Iran suspends flights to Turkey airport after coup attempt
Iran suspended all flights to Turkey after a coup attempt in the neighbouring country.
The deputy director of Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport was quoted by the state broadcaster as saying that seven flights to Turkey had been cancelled Saturday morning. “We will revise the situation to resume the flights when we have the latest information,” Koroush Fattahi said.
