Coup terror for SA visitors in Turkey
Cape family feared for their lives as rebels seized airport
SOUTH Africans have described the nightmare of being caught in the crossfire as soldiers tried to take over Turkey’s government on Friday night.
Soldiers staged the dramatic coup attempt as the world was still reeling from the bloody Bastille Day terror attack in Nice, France.
The attempted coup also happened just days after a group of South Africans found themselves stranded in South Sudan as renewed fighting escalated in Africa’s youngest nation.
In Turkey, 265 people, including 100 soldiers who supported the rebellion, were killed and at least 1 440 wounded. Almost 3 000 troops, including high-ranking officers, have been arrested, while 2 700 judges have been dismissed in the wake of the coup attempt.
Clayson Monyela, spokesman for the Department of International Relations and Co-operation, said that according to reports from the embassy in Turkey, no South Africans were reported injured or killed.
“The mission continues to monitor the situation closely and is on standby to assist any South Africans who may require assistance,” said Monyela.
Yesterday morning Turkey’s leaders said they had crushed the attempt to topple President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after hours of clashes through the night that saw tanks blockading roads, soldiers fighting police and warplanes bombing the parliament in Ankara.
Cape Town music producer Marc Algranti and his family landed at Istanbul airport during the coup attempt.
‘‘We are shaken and tired but unharmed and safe in a hotel room. We have no idea if our flight will leave tonight, so we checked into a hotel about 15 minutes from the airport,” he told the Sunday Times.
Algranti, with his wife, Lindy, and their two children, Luca, 9, and Sophie, 7, said they arrived from Athens into chaos.
‘‘I have no idea why the plane even landed. They must have known what was going on.
‘‘There was a massive line at passport control. All we knew was that the army had surrounded the airport and taken over all the bridges. We were almost at passport control when the military arrived in numbers, all carrying weapons. We all dropped to the floor and I tried to cover my family and was fearing for my life,” said Algranti.
‘‘They stood behind the immigration officers in their booths and the immigration officers just stood there with their hands up. It became chaotic when the military arrived. We had no idea what they were going to do. People were diving for cover. We were very exposed as we were at the front of the queue.
‘‘They were there for about 10 to 15 minutes and then moved on. Then immigration opened again and things started getting more chaotic. Lots of pushing and shoving.”
Algranti said his children were deeply shaken by the experience.
‘‘We spent the night on chairs at a coffee shop. Then when we thought it was over and the military had left, we heard a huge blast that shook the building. We thought it was a bomb so we picked up our sleeping kids and ran. We found out it was a sonic boom from a fighter jet. There were a few more after that,” he said.
The family were due to fly back home last night, Algranti said.
Cape Town mom Louise van Rhyn became nervous when she hadn’t heard from her daughter Helen, 18. Helen was on her first solo trip overseas and landed in Turkey on Friday. Louise said Helen contacted them yesterday around noon.
“She arrived safely in Fethiye. She did not know about any unrest. She was surprised that it took four hours to get out of Istanbul due to heavy traffic,” Van Rhyn said.
South African journalist Mark Klusener, who works at state-owned news channel TRT World, was on night shift when soldiers stormed their offices on Friday night.
“We were told to leave the building and go straight to commercials. As we filed out of the building, there were about 30 to 40 soldiers in full battle gear. They ordered us to get on to the staff bus. But I had my car, so my colleague Ben Said [a former eNCA journalist] decided we should go to his apartment about 500m away.” Their phones were confiscated. “At some point the president went on TV to announce they were still in control and urged the people to fight back. The message also came through from the mosques.”
Heeding the call, the Turkish people began to storm the streets, Klusener recounted.
“It was like an organic uprising. I saw people standing on top of [tanks] and dragging soldiers out of cars and slapping them around. They weren’t scared. The soldiers were also quite hesitant. They fired shots, but into the air above them.”
Another South African-born journalist who works for a TV station in Istanbul said: “It was like a world war, people were screaming and shouting and jets flying all over. Even brave men that I know had wet their pants. It was ugly and scary.”
The journalist, who did not want to be named because his employer had banned staff from speaking to other media, said: “We all thought we were going to die. It was a battle to take control of state institutions but now President Erdogan is back in power and in full control. Nobody knows what tomorrow will bring.”
National Heritage Council CEO Sonwabile Mancotywa was in Istanbul leading a group of South Africans at a Unesco conference, which also included Environmental Affairs official Thabo Kgomommu and Venda Chief Livhuwani Matsila.
Said Mancotywa: “We are at the Hilton Hotel and next to our hotel is the US embassy. The session had just ended and delegates were moving to their hotels. Then there was panic all over.”
“It started with gunfire and we were told we must be in our rooms, switch off the lights and lie on the floor on our stomachs. We could feel the airstrikes because the whole hotel would shake. We had to stay indoors until 5am. There was gunfire all over. It was even difficult to
just get up because you don’t know what could happen or hit you through the window,” Mancotywa said.
Kgomommu described being caught up in the failed coup on Friday night.
“I was in a hotel room not far from where the attack took place in Paris, but in Istanbul I saw bullets flying all over and I thought I was going to die. It was one of the scariest moments in my life.”
Kgomommu said he was walking down the street with fellow South Africans attending the Unesco conference when locals started telling them to run and hide.
“We started running to our hotel only to see the police guarding our hotel also running for their lives. We were left on our own, hiding in our rooms and praying we would survive.
“There was bullets flying all over, soldiers and the coup plotters shooting one another. We just thank God that nobody from our delegation was hurt or killed. Maybe my ancestors are trying to tell me that I must stay at home. This was scary.”
The help desk at OR Tambo airport yesterday confirmed all arrivals and departures to Turkey had been cancelled.
Early yesterday morning, there were still tanks on the Bosphorus bridge. They stood on the tarmac that links Istanbul’s Asian and European shores, but gone were the soldiers who had guarded the tanks. In their place were the anti-coup protesters who had chased them away.
In the wake of the Nice attack, a Johannesburg businessman described on Facebook how his family narrowly missed the carnage.
France was still in shock yesterday after the third major terrorist attack in 18 months. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the killings.
Henri Meistre posted on Facebook: “In Nice . . . All of us ok . . . we stood just to the left of where the truck came to a standstill. The little street store in the pics shown on the news stations is where we bought some sweets a few minutes earlier . . . Mayhem broke out and we all just ran away from the Promenade des Anglais.”
Meanwhile, Monyela said five South Africans who had requested evacuation from South Sudan have been flown back home.
Days of deadly gun battles had sent thousands fleeing and sparked the evacuation of foreigners.
Maybe my ancestors are trying to tell me I must stay at home
The UN warned of fresh fighting on Wednesday, but a ceasefire appeared to be holding in the capital, Juba, after a sudden flare-up in fighting last week threatened to drive South Sudan back into all-out civil war.
Monyela said there were a number of South Africans working in South Sudan and that they were all accounted for. “Once the ceasefire was agreed to and the airport reopened, we were able to assist South Africans. There are a few of our nationals working for the UN, Red Cross and MTN among others.” — Additional sources Bloomberg, the Guardian, BBC