Military withdrew as crowds amassed
Blaming political enemies, Erdogan said “what is being perpetrated is a rebellion and a treason. They will pay a heavy price for their treason to Turkey.”
“There is no power higher than the power of the people,” Erdogan said in a night of wild confusion and contradictory accounts of who was in control. “Let them do what they will at public squares and airports.”
Many of his followers obeyed his orders to go into the streets, and mosque loudspeakers exhorted his supporters to go out and protest against the coup attempt.
The Anadolu News Agency said the 17 dead were police officers killed in a military helicopter attack by coup plotters on a police special forces headquarters outside Ankara. There were also reports that fighter jets had shot down a military helicopter used by coup plotters. CNN Turk reported that 12 civilians were killed in an explosion at the Parliament building.
Stéphane Dion, Canada’s foreign affairs minister, urged “calm, order, safety of all people in Turkey.”
Ottawa is offering consular assistance to Canadians in Turkey if it’s needed.
The events began unfolding late Friday, at about 10 p.m. local time, as the military moved to stop traffic over two of Istanbul’s bridges, which cross the Bosporus and connect the European and Asian sides of the city.
There were reports of gunfire in Istanbul’s central Taksim Square, where pro-Erdogan supporters had gathered, and it appeared that security forces were acting with restraint. On the Bosporus Bridge, which was closed earlier in the evening by the military, there were reports of gunfire as protesters approached, and according to NTV, a television news channel, three people were injured.
Some military figures spoke out against a coup, including the commander of the First Army, Gen. Umit Guler, who on a pro-government news channel said: “The armed forces do not support this movement comprised of a small group within our ranks.”
Leaders of opposition political parties, who have otherwise worked against Erdogan’s government, also spoke out against a seizure of the government by the military.
“This country has suffered a lot from coups,” Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of the main secular opposition party, the Republican People’s Party, known by its Turkish initials CHP, said in a written statement, according to Hurriyet Daily News. “It should be known that the CHP fully depends on the free will of the people as indispensable of our parliamentary democracy.”
By 2 a.m., a large group of protesters had gathered at Ataturk Airport, and the military had begun withdrawing, according to CNN Turk.
In the streets of Istanbul’s European districts, bars and restaurants were showing footage on television of scenes at the bridge, while par- tygoers were glued to their phones trying to learn what was happening.
“Some people illegally undertook an illegal action outside of the chain of command,” Yildirim said in comments broadcast on NTV, a private television channel. “The government elected by the people remains in charge. This government will only go when the people say so.”
Shortly after Yildirim spoke, factions of the Turkish military issued a statement, according to the news agency DHA, claiming it had taken control of the country.
“Turkish armed forces seized the rule of the country completely with the aim of reinstalling the constitutional order, democracy, human rights and freedoms, to make rule of law pervade again, to re-establish the ruined public order,” the statement quoted by DHA said. “All the international agreements and promises are valid. We hope our good relations with all global countries goes on.”
The abrupt turn in Turkey came as Erdogan has been battling a wave of deadly extremism by Daesh, also known as ISIS or ISIL, struggling to accommodate hundreds of thousands of refugees from the war in neighbouring Syria and fighting a resurgent Kurdish rebellion in the Turkish southeast.
U.S. President Barack Obama urged all parties in Turkey to support the democratically elected Erdogan government.
Erdogan blamed followers of Fethullah Gulen, a Muslim cleric who lives in exile in Pennsylvania and who once was an ally before the two had a bitter falling-out in 2013 over a corruption inquiry that targeted Erdogan and his inner circle, for the coup attempt. Over many years, followers of Gulen built up a presence in Turkey’s police and judiciary, and Erdogan blamed them for the corruption probe.
The military had long seen itself as the guardian of Turkey’s secular system, established by the country’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. But in recent years, a series of sensational trials had pushed the military back to its barracks, which analysts said had secured civilian leadership over the military.
Across Istanbul, rumors swirled and evening plans were upended. In the Arnavutkoy neighbourhood, people flooded out of bars and restaurants, hailing taxis and urging loved ones to get home to safety.
“There’s a coup,” one man shouted in the street. “There’s a coup, and blood will be shed.”
Erdogan attracted a wide-ranging constituency in the early years of his tenure, including many liberals who supported his plans to reform the economy and remove the military from politics. But in recent years, he has alienated many Turks with his increasingly autocratic ways, cracking down on freedom of expression, imposing a significant role for religion in public life and renewing war with Kurdish militants in the country’s southeast.