 |
Turkish security officers detain Turkish police officers (in
black) on July 15, 2016 in Istanbul, during a security shutdown of the
Bosphorus Bridge. The Turkish military on July 15 said that it had assumed
power over Turkey, in what the prime minister has termed as illegal act. “The
power in the country has been seized in its entirety,” said a military
statement read on NTV television, without giving further details. The military’s
website was not immediately accessible. AFP Photo.
|
Turkey’s military said on Friday it had seized power but
President Tayyip Erdogan vowed that the attempted coup would be put down.
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 U.S. allies in the region while
war rages on its border.
“We will overcome this,” Erdogan 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.
An official said Erdogan was speaking from Marmaris on the
Turkish coast where he was on holiday. Erdogan said he would swiftly return to
Ankara.
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said the elected government
remained in office. However, it appeared that those behind the coup had the
upper hand initially.
Airports were shut, access to Internet social media sites
was cut off, and troops sealed off the two bridges over the Bosphorus in
Istanbul, one of which was still lit up red, white and blue in solidarity with
victims of the Bastille Day truck attack in France a day earlier.
Warplanes and helicopters roared over the capital Ankara. An
explosion was heard in Ankara, where a helicopter opened fire.
Soldiers took control
of TRT state television, which announced a countrywide curfew and martial law.
An announcer read a statement on the orders of the military that accused the
government of eroding the democratic and secular rule of law. The country would
be run by a “peace council” that would ensure the safety of the population, the
statement said.
TRT later went off the air.
The state-run Anadolu news agency said the chief of Turkey’s
military staff was among people taken “hostage” in the capital Ankara.
CNN Turk also reported that hostages were being held at the
military headquarters.
NOT A TINPOT COUP
A senior EU source monitoring the situation said: “It looks
like a relatively well orchestrated coup by a significant body of the military,
not just a few colonels. They’ve got control of the airports and are expecting
control over the TV station imminently. They control several strategic points
in Istanbul.
“Given the scale of the operation, it is difficult to
imagine they will stop short of prevailing. It’s not just a few colonels,” the
source repeated.
One European diplomat
was dining with the Turkish ambassador to a European capital when guests were
interrupted by the pinging of urgent news on their mobile phones.
“This is clearly not some tinpot little coup. The Turkish
ambassador was clearly shocked and is taking it very seriously,” the diplomat
told Reuters as the dinner party broke up. “However it looks in the morning,
this will have massive implications for Turkey. This has not come out of
nowhere.”
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign
Minister Sergei Lavrov, speaking jointly after talks in Moscow, both said they
hoped bloodshed would be avoided. The U.S. State Department said Americans in
Turkey should shelter indoors. Other countries issued similar advice.
Turkey, a NATO member with the second biggest military in
the Western alliance, is one of the most important allies of the United States
in the fight against Islamic State, which seized swathes of neighbouring Iraq
and Syria.
Turkey is one of the main backers of opponents of Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad in that country’s civil war, host to 2.7 million
Syrian refugees and launchpad last year for the biggest influx of migrants to
Europe since World War Two.
Celebratory gunfire erupted in Syria’s capital Damascus as
reports emerged that Erdogan had been toppled, and people took the streets to
celebrate there and in the government-held section of the divided city of
Aleppo.
Turkey has been at war with Kurdish separatists, and has
suffered numerous bombing and shooting attacks this year, including an attack
two weeks ago by Islamists at Istanbul’s main airport that killed more than 40
people.
In an earlier statement sent by email and reported on TV
channels, the military said it had taken power to protect the democratic order
and to maintain human rights. All of Turkey’s existing foreign relations would
be maintained and the rule of law would remain the priority, it said.
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. His opponents say his rule has become increasingly
authoritarian.
His AK Party, with roots in Islamism, has long had a
strained relationship with the military and nationalists in a state that was
founded on secularist principles after World War One. The military has a
history of mounting coups to defend secular principles, but has not seized
power directly since 1980.
Prime Minister Yildirim said a group within Turkey’s
military had attempted to overthrow the government and security forces have
been called in to “do what is necessary.”
“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.”
-Reuters
Post a Comment