Turkey on Friday claimed that only “one per cent” of officials of its military were involved in the failed coup attempt made last week and that it had found “concrete evidence” of the involvement of Fatehullah Gulen’s organisation in the abortive attempt.
“It (coup) was not an act of the Turkish army as an institution. Only 7,423 army personnel were detained, out of which, 218 have formally been charged who would be tried under the law, while investigations are being carried out against others. The high command of the military was not involved with the coup plotters and the navy chief and the first commander of the armed forces informed the public that military had moved to arrest the terrorists,” said Turkish Ambassador Sadik Babur Girgin, while briefing the media on events following the abortive coup attempt made last week in Turkey.
The ambassador said the impression being portrayed by a section of the media that it was a military coup was baseless, as only a small group was involved in it. Soon after the news came out, the public, police, and prosecutors immediately responded and thwarted the coup attempt, he added.
“All those detained have been suspended from their government services and are being investigated. Those found involved with evidence would be charged while others would be released and reinstated against their posts,” he added.
The ambassador deplored the fact that while the western media was projecting wrong figures, the truth of the matter is that a terrorist group had infiltrated the civil and military ranks that made a failed attempt to stage a coup which was foiled by the brave people and the democratic leadership of Turkey.
“The small number of officials proves it was a terrorist attempt by some elements planted by Gulen’s organisation in the military, judiciary, education, and other branches of state institutions with ulterior motives,” he added.
Asked about the crackdown following the abortive coup attempt, the envoy said those being investigated included 10,000 civilians, 2,500 officials from judicial side and 1,000 from police.
“The Higher Education Council has asked all the deans of the universities to relinquish their charge for the time being and they would keep serving as professors. They could be reinstalled later if cleared,” he added.
The ambassador said the investigators are compelled to believe that Gulen’s organisation is more lethal than the PKK and Daesh. He said during the resistance by public, 24 coup plotters were killed and 50 were wounded who were later arrested.
“Most of the coup plotters were from air force and at least four F-16 jets were used by the terrorists in the attempt besides some tanks, armored vehicles, and attack helicopters were used in the process. One helicopter was shot down by the air force through an F-16 jet, while one transport military helicopter was hijacked and taken to Greece by terrorists,” he added.
He said some helicopters used by terrorists were refilled from a Turkish airbase used by NATO and a three-star military general, that was in-charge of the base and was involved with the terrorists, has also been arrested.
Sadik Babur said the parliament convened special emergent session and all four parties signed a joint declaration to condemn the coup. The terrorists bombed the parliament using attack helicopters, he said and added that the coup plotters also tried to transmit their message through state media, but the Turkish media resisted and played a key role by keeping the public informed about the vicious designs.
“The coup attempt lasted five to six hours and after the military, the public, and the police thwarted the plan, things returned back to normalcy,” he added.
“There are over 200 martyrs who laid down their lives fighting against the terrorists, while the presidency and the parliament were being bombed by military helicopters,” he said.
He said as soon as the coup failed, public prosecutors immediately moved to ascertain who took part in the coup attempt and those detained had been arrested under the law.
When asked whether Turkey has asked Pakistan to shutdown Pak-Turk Schools run by Gulen Movement, the ambassador said that Turkey has exceptional friendly and strong brotherly relations with Pakistan since its inception.
“We have a very close coordination with the Pakistani government over the issue,” the envoy said.
Asked whether Turkey would attend inauguration of Pakistan’s fleet-tanker and sale of Mashak jets scheduled for August 18, the ambassador said Turkey stands by all its international commitments according to the schedules. “We have yet not received invitation from Pakistan to attend the inauguration of the fleet tanker,” he concluded.
