Turkey captures soldiers accused in failed coup attempt
Commandos had been on the run after attacking hotel where Erdogan was staying
ISTANBUL— Turkish forces flying attack helicopters and drones raided a forested area in southwestern Turkey overnight, capturing a fugitive unit of commandos that had tried to assassinate or kidnap President Recep Tayyip Erdogan last month during a coup attempt, Turkish officials said Monday.
The commandos, who joined a conspiracy initiated by a rebel faction of the military to topple the government, had been on the run since early July 16, when they assaulted a seaside hotel in Marmaris where Erdogan had been vacationing.
The president slipped away just before the commandos’ helicopters arrived, however, in one of the most dramatic events in a long night of violence that ultimately failed to topple the government but that left more than 250 people dead.
Residents in the Marmaris area played a role in capturing the fugitive commandos, spotting them while out boar-hunting and quickly alerting the authorities.
Erdogan’s ability to evade his captors was decisive in the coup’s failure, enabling him to rally his supporters, in a speech delivered over his iPhone’s FaceTime app, to oppose renegade military units.
Later, he flew to Istanbul, where his arrival provided the surest sign that the coup would ultimately fail.
In the overnight raid, special forces captured 11 commandos thought to have been part of the plot against Erdogan’s life, although one suspect is still at large, Turkey’s deputy prime minister, Numan Kurtulmus, said in a news conference Monday. The capture of the commandos came as Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, visited the Turkish capital, Ankara, on Monday to assure Turkey that the United States was against the coup attempt and to discuss the countries’ joint fight against militants from Daesh, also known as ISIS or ISIL.
Dunford’s visit aimed to cool tensions fanned by some Turkish officials and pro-government commentators who had questioned whether the U.S. might somehow have supported the coup attempt, which President Barack Obama has strongly denied.
They have also demanded the extradition of Fethullah Gulen, a Muslim cleric in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania whom the Turkish authorities have accused of leading the botched coup. Erdogan has accused the U.S. of harbouring Gulen, but Washington is asking for evidence of the cleric’s involvement and said the extradition process must be allowed to run its course.
While in Ankara, Dunford was taken on a tour of the Parliament building, which was bombed during the night of July 15.
At a small protest held near the U.S. Embassy in Ankara, demonstrators held up placards reading “Dunford go home, send us Fethullhah,” and “Get out coup plotter Dunford.”
Meanwhile, the foreign ministry summoned Germany’s charge d’affaires in Ankara to discuss a German court decision that prevented Erdogan from addressing via video link a Sunday rally in the German city of Cologne denouncing the coup attempt and showing support for Erdogan.