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1,500 arrested, 190 killed, 1,150 injured in Turkish coup attempt
Published
time: 16 Jul, 2016 06:33Edited time: 16 Jul, 2016 09:12
A man wrapped
in a Turkish flag walks past a military vehicle in front of Sabiha Airport, in
Istanbul, Turkey July 16, 2016 © Baz Ratner / Reuters
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Turkish
loyalists report arresting 1,563 soldiers and officers implicated in an
overnight coup attempt. At least 190 people have been killed, including 104
pro-coup participants, while 1,154 people were injured in military action in
Istanbul and Ankara.
TrendsCoup attempt in Turkey
“1,563
soldiers were arrested, and 104 military who took part in the coup were killed
in clashes. Ninety others were also killed, including 41 [pro-government]
police officers, 2 [pro-government] soldiers and 47 civilians,” he
said.
Pro-government
forces have seized control of the top military HQ building, but there are still
some groups of rebels resisting, a Turkish official said on Saturday, as cited
by Reuters.
General Hulusi
Akar, who heads Turkey’s armed forces, has been rescued from rebel captivity.
He was the most senior military official in their hands.
The rebels
reportedly have several helicopter gunships in their disposal, but loyalists
have threatened to shoot them down as they downed at least one aircraft
carrying out attacks on government buildings.
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more
A faction of
the Turkish military attempted to overthrow the government on Friday night,
employing tanks and attack helicopters. The conspiracy appears to have failed,
however, as they didn’t manage to capture any senior government officials and
couldn’t win wide support from the Turkish military.
President
Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on his civilian supporters to take to the streets
of Istanbul, which they did. Rebel soldiers, who called on the population to
stay indoors, apparently didn’t have the resolve to launch a full-scale war
against civilians in Turkey’s biggest city.
The coup
attempt began on Friday night when warplanes and helicopters buzzed over Ankara
and rebel troops moved in to seal off the bridges over the Bosphorus Strait.
Tanks attacked
several government buildings, including the Turkish parliament, as lawmakers
hid in shelters inside the building.
Several
airports were shut down and access to social media was blocked in the first
hours of turmoil.
The TRT state
television and the Turkish branch of CNN were seized and ceased broadcasting.
BREAKING: Jet
drops bomb near Turkish presidential palace in Ankara.
The tide
turned early on Saturday as rebels lost momentum and failed to win support.
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more
Government
officials accused Fethullah Gulen, an influential cleric in self-imposed exile
in the United States, of instigating the plot. Gulen used to be an ally of
Erdogan, but turned into his fierce opponent.
In 2013,
Turkey was shaken by a corruption scandal involving senior government figures.
Erdogan claimed it had been set up by Gulen and launched a crackdown on his
supporters in the police and judiciary.
Even though
Erdogan appears to have kept his hold on power, the coup attempt is a clear
signal that some of his policies are badly failing, Sreeram Chaullia from the
Jindal School of International Affairs told RT.
Under his
watch, Turkey has picked a fight with Kurdish insurgents, contributed to the
chaos in Syria and Iraq, antagonized Iran and Russia, and to some extent made
Turkey a liability to NATO, he explained.
“I
have a feeling that this coup is linked to the security crisis. A series of
terrorist attacks signal the inability of the Turkish government to stop these
attacks. It has angered some sections of the security establishment that
believe that they can do a better job because Erdogan is just playing politics
with everything,” he said.
Modern Turkey
has undergone three successful military coups over its century-long history,
the latest in 1980.
The Turkish
military has traditionally been the guarantor of the country’s secularity,
while Erdogan’s platform is Islamist in nature. Critics accuse the Turkish
president of trying to turn the country into an Islamic state with him as its
dictatorial head.
Erdogan, who
has been in power since 2002, has faced being toppled by the military before,
but the alleged plot dubbed Operation Sledgehammer was prevented in 2010 by a
series of arrests. Some 300 alleged conspirators were sent to prison at that
time.
Turkey is a
member of NATO and a key US ally in the region, providing its airbase for the
ongoing military campaign in neighboring Syria. It also hosts American nuclear
weapons, with an estimated 50 to 90 B61 bombs stored at the Incirlik base.000
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