Turkey marks failed coup attempt
Two years ago 290 died in military insurrection
ISTANBUL — With prayers and other events, Turkey on Sunday commemorated the second anniversary of thwarting a coup against the Turkish president and the government that left nearly 290 people dead and hundreds wounded.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey has “cut off the arms of the octopus, the cursed in Pennsylvania grew with hypocrisy, tricks, lies and within big secrecy.” He was referring to Fethullah Gulen, the U.s.-based cleric Turkey blames for the coup, and said the government has brought down Gulen’s network within the public and private sector.
Erdogan, who won re-election last month and was sworn into office July 9 under a new executive government system that concentrates power in the president’s hands, addressed tens of thousands of people gathered Sunday night on an Istanbul bridge that was renamed as the July 15 Martyrs’ Bridge.
On July 15, 2016, factions within the Turkish military used tanks, warplanes and helicopters in an attempt to overthrow Erdogan. Clashes took place in Istanbul, Ankara and Marmaris, where Erdogan was on holiday and reportedly barely escaped capture. Fighter jets bombed parliament and other spots in Turkey’s capital. Heeding a call by the president, thousands took to the streets to stop the coup.
This was the second year the government organized a massive memorial ceremony on the bridge. The names of the 251 people killed resisting the attempted overthrow were read on the bridge as crowds waved Turkish flags and lit up the bridge with their mobile phones. At least 35 alleged coup-plotters were also killed.
The event has functioned as a pro-erdogan rally where the president reiterates Turkey’s fight against Muslim cleric Gulen’s network, the Islamic State group and outlawed Kurdish militants and slams opposition parties.
Gulen rejects the accusation that he was behind the failed insurrection. He was once a close ally to Erdogan, but his network was declared a terror organization after the two had a falling out in 2013.
Turkey has demanded that the United States extradite Gulen and his legal status has tested relations between the two countries.