Faizel Patel, 2016-07-16
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has vowed to stay in power after an army faction dramatically tried to topple the government.
The coup attempt was launched on Friday night when army factions blocked bridges, fighter jets were spotted in the skies and gunfire and loud explosions rocked both the main city Istanbul and capital Ankara after soldiers took up positions in both cities and ordered state television to read out a statement declaring they had taken power.
A senior official told news agencies that At least 60 people were killed across Turkey during the coup attempt, while the state-run Anadolu Agency says Some 754 members of the armed forces were detained across the country.
Erdogan’s first appearance after an attempted coup came through a FaceTime app on an Apple iPhone, held up to a TV camera by a news presenter.
“We will overcome this,” Erdogan said on Saturday as a CNN Turk anchor placed a lapel microphone near the screen, urging his supporters to take to the streets to protest the attempt to overthrow him.
“Go to the streets and give them their answer,” Erdogan said via the video chat app. “I am coming to a square in Ankara. This was done from outside the chain of command. Those who are responsible, we will give them the necessary punishment.”
Erdogan, who had been holidaying at coastal city of Marmaris few into Istanbul before dawn on Saturday and was shown on TV appearing and speaking to a crowd of supporters outside Ataturk Airport.
Erdogan said the coup plotters had pointed “the people’s guns against the people.
“The uprising was an “act of treason”, and those responsible would pay a heavy price…Arrests of officers were under way, and it would go higher up the ranks, culminating in the cleansing of the military.”
Erdogan and other 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.
Earlier Radio Islam correspondent Abed Ahmed described scenes confusion in Turkey when the attempted coup unfolded saying thousands of people seen queuing outside shops and ATMs getting as much provisions as they can, from fruits and breads from shops leaving many sold out.
“The was sheer pandemonium and the sheer chaos that ensued once the military faction took over last night. We are just glad this morning we are coming out in the streets and we are seeing that the government are coming back into full control. They’ve tightened the lid on things. Majority of the factions involved in the coup have been arrested.”
Ahmed says all South African in Istanbul have checked in and are safe.
Early on Saturday, Reuter’s journalists saw around 30 pro-coup soldiers surrender their weapons after being surrounded by armed police in Istanbul’s central Taksim square.
They were taken away in police vans as an F-16 fighter jet repeatedly screeched overhead at low altitude, causing a boom that shook surrounding buildings and shattered windows.
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