Turkey Declares Three-Month State Of Emergency After Failed Military Coup
Turkey has been cracking down on what it says are anti-government forces and institutions after a failed military coup killed hundreds. BuzzFeed News correspondent Borzou Daragahi is reporting from Turkey.
Gurcan Ozturk / AFP / Getty Images
What We Know So Far
- 265 people have died after a faction in Turkey’s military attempted to topple the country’s government Friday.
- The country’s president has declared a three-month state of emergency.
- Images from Istanbul and the capital, Ankara, showed low-flying military aircraft, tanks, and huge crowds in the streets.
- Explosions hit the Turkish parliament building in Ankara, causing several injuries.
- Speaking from Istanbul’s Ataturk airport, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said the failed uprising was a “gift from God to us because this will help us clean our military from the members of this gang”.
- The country’s Prime Minister said in Ankara Saturday the situation was now “completely under control”, and suggested the death penalty could be brought back to ensure such an attempt on the government could not happen again.
- 6,000 arrests have been made following the coup, including high-ranking military and judicial figures.
Updates
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday declared a three-month state of emergency following a failed military coup last week.
“The institution of the state of emergency is to protect those (democratic) values against any attack,” Erdogan said during a late-night address to the nation Wednesday. “No one should have the slightest reservations about this.”
More than 260 people were killed as fighter jets, military helicopters, and tanks roared through the streets of Turkey on Friday, looking to wrestle control from the democratic elected government.
Erdogan said the state of emergency was declared after meeting with the country’s national security council and cabinet.
Anticipating criticism over the decision, Erdogan said during his address that European countries have taken similar measures after terror attacks, and detractors “have no right to criticize our decision. They should first look to themselves.”
“We just want to be left alone,” Erdogan said. “This nation can determine its own fate.”
It was not immediately clear what impact the state of emergency would have, but Erdogan said the nation’s governors would remain in place and the military would stay under their control.
“We have never compromised from democracy, and we will not do from now on,” he said.
–Salvador Hernandez
Turkey’s Kurdish leader hopes failed coup will make Erdogan see his opponents differently
Gurcan Ozturk / AFP / Getty Images
DIYARBAKIR, Turkey — Selahattin Demirtas feared something ominous was happening. More than 20 years ago, he had fulfilled his obligatory military service in Istanbul. So, when he saw photographs late Friday night that showed armed soldiers blocking traffic on the two suspension bridges connecting the European and Asian sides of the city, he quickly suspected something out of the ordinary.
“I knew this was illegal,” Demirtas, the 43-year old co-leader of Turkey’s leftist, Kurdish-rooted opposition People’s Democratic Party (HDP), told BuzzFeed News in an exclusive interview on Saturday at a residence in Diyarbakir on Saturday.
He was right. Factions of Turkey’s long opaque military were staging a coup against the government led by Demirtas’s arch-nemesis, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. For more than a year, Erdogan and his allies in the government and the press have been aggressively seeking to punish Demirtas, his party, and its supporters for alleged ties to Kurdish separatists, who are now fighting Turkey’s armed forces in the southeast.
Yet as the ugly, noisy cacophony of the failed coup resounded across the world, Demirtas’s voice stood out as a note of reason and principle. To the surprise of some observers, his party quickly voiced support for the government — one that has arrested its members, sought to strip its lawmakers of immunity, and repeatedly ignored, tarnished, and insulted it.
Coup plotters acted quickly after finding out they had been under investigation, Turkish official says
An official for the Turkish government told reporters including BuzzFeed News on Monday that plotters of the failed coup were “known members of the Gulen Movement” and had been under investigation by authorities “for some time.”
“They launched the coup on Friday out of a “sense of emergency when they realized that they were under investigation,” the official said. However, he conceded that the faction had been hard for intelligence agencies to detect, and that authorities did not believe a coup was imminent.
The government had a list of people suspected of conspiring to stage a coup ahead of Friday’s events, according to the official. However, there had been no arrest warrants in place.
Addressing why Turkish intelligence services were seemingly caught unaware by Friday’s events, the official said that it was “a very secretive organization operating cells across the government.”
“Their chain of command isn’t hierarchical within individual institutions but cells typically
include members from various agencies,” he said. A number of judges were also linked to the military faction, the official added, who could have “assumed control of government agencies and court martial had the coup succeeded.”
The official also said “at least several dozen” soldiers involved in the plot were still at large.
“Our concern is that, without the necessary precautions, there might be new attacks on government buildings and civilians by members of the failed junta,” he added.
The government has detained around 6,000 people since Friday, and on Monday, the state-run Andalou Agency reported that the country’s Interior Ministry suspended nearly 8,000 personnel.
— Francis Whittaker and Borzou Daragahi
In a rare interview, self-exiled Turkish cleric calls coup allegations “slander”
Fethullah Gulen, a 75-year-old imam and leader of a Turkish religious sect who lives in a small town in Pennsylvania, told reporters that “Their rhetoric amounts to slander and nothing more,” adding that the coup itself may have been staged.
“I don’t believe that the world believes the accusations made by President Erdoğan. There is a possibility that it could be a staged coup and it could be meant for further accusations,” Gulen said to reporters through an interpreter on his religious movement’s compound in the Pennsylvania Poconos area.
Gulen also told reporters that the Turkish people shouldn’t view a military coup “positively” because “through military intervention, democracy cannot be achieved.”
In the interview, given to a handful of local and international news organizations, Gulen also compared the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to the SS of the Nazi party.
“They have confiscated properties; they have confiscated media organizations; they have broken doors; they have harassed people in a fashion similar to Hitler’s SS forces,” Mr. Gulen was quoted as saying.
President Erdogan asked the U.S. to extradite Gulen as the remaining soldiers who participated in the coup were arrested on Saturday.
“I say if we are strategic partners then you should bring about our request,” Erdogan said in a televised speech on Saturday. US secretary of state John Kerry told reporters that no official extradition request has been made but that he expects “that there will be questions raised about Mr. Gulen.”
— Talal Ansari
Britain’s crisis response committee “working around the clock” to bring tourists home from Turkey
Following a meeting of COBR, the British government’s emergencies committee, on Sunday morning, officials are said to be focussed on brining back tourists from the UK who remain stuck in Turkey.
“British consular staff are working around the clock to support and reassure British nationals in Turkey at the moment, with a particular focus on supporting those waiting for planes in Turkey’s main airports,” a Downing Street statement said. “Flights are starting to get back to normal and backlogs of passengers are beginning to ease.”
Travel advice to Turkey from the UK will remain under review while the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the intelligence agencies, the Ministry of Defence, the Home Office and the Department for Transport, which were all represented at the meeting, continue to monitor the situation closely.
While they were satisfied that the situation in Turkey had began to stabilize, officials agreed that Britain must continue to work with the Turkish government to focus on the situation and its developments.
The Ambassador and embassy staff in Ankara also joined by video link.
– Laura Silver
6,000 people have now been arrested following the failed coup in Turkey
Ozan Kose / AFP / Getty Images
“The clean-up operations are continuing,” Turkey’s justice minister Bekir Bozdag told state media Sunday.
He said the number of people being detained by police, which now totals 6,000, is likely to rise even further.
Several senior military commanders and judges have been arrested in the government’s sweep of arrests.
Though the coup attempt failed hours after it was launched, the sudden uprising in Turkey Friday night exposed the steep challenges the country faces.
The country may have avoided a military coup, but it still faces steep challenges as it tries to prevent future ISIS attacks, bolster international ties and tamp down a war with separatist Kurds.
Now, the country’s leaders are looking for stability.
As one Middle East expert told BuzzFeed News: “This is a coup where everyone loses.”
Muslim cleric accused of inspiring uprising denies role in military coup
Fethullah Gülen. Handout . / Reuters
A Muslim cleric living in the U.S. and accused by Turkey’s president of inciting a failed military coup condemned the bloody uprising in a statement.
“Government should be won through a process of free and fair elections, not force,” Fethullah Gülen said in a statement released by his foundation, Alliance for Shared Values. “I condemn, in the strongest terms, the attempted military coup in Turkey.”
On Saturday, as hundreds of soldiers who participated in the coup were arrested and as the country appeared to be under the control of its elected government, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called on the U.S. to extradite Gülen.
Secretary of State John Kerry reportedly met with Turkey’s Foreign Minister to discuss the attempted the coup, and touched on Turkey’s request to extradite Gülen, according to the state run Anadolu Agency.
According to a summary of the meeting from the State Department, Kerry “urged restraint by the Turkish government.”
That included any information Turkey may uncover in its investigation about who were involved in the coup.
“(Kerry) made clear that the United States would be willing to provide assistance to Turkish authorities conducting its investigation, but that public insinuations or claims about any role by the United States in the failed coup attempt are utterly false and harmful to bilateral relations,” the statement read.
In his own statement, Gülen denied having any connection to the failed coup.
“As someone who suffered under multiple military coups during the past five decades, it is especially insulting to be accused of having any link to such an attempt,” the statement read. “I categorically deny such accusations.”
– Salvador Hernandez
Turkish president urges U.S. to extradite cleric for allegedly inspiring coup
Selahattin Sevi / AP Photo
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Saturday called upon the U.S. government to either arrest or extradite Fethullah Gülen, the self-exiled cleric he believes incited the coup attempt.
Gülen currently lives in Pennsylvania.
“Dear Mr. President: I told you this before. Either arrest Fethullah Gulen [sic] or return him to Turkey. You didn’t listen,” he said in Turkey late on Saturday, according to the New York Times.
“I call on you again, after there was a coup attempt. Extradite this man in Pennsylvania to Turkey. If we are strategic partners or model partners, do what is necessary,” he added.
The moderate Islamic movement established by Gülen in the 1960s and 1970s has since become a secretive religious and political movement with schools and other establishments located all over the world. Its influence has even seeped into American politics, according to a BuzzFeed News report from 2014.
More recently, the Gülen-linked group was found to have hired a lobbying firm, called the Podesta Group, with strong ties to the Clintons.
Yasin Akgul / Getty Images
Saturday evening in Turkey saw continued protests spill into the streets. While demonstrators opposed the coup, they were not necessarily defending Erdoğan.
“These people do not support Erdoğan, but they oppose the idea of a military coup,” one unnamed academic told the Guardian.
“Turkey has a history of very painful, traumatic military interventions, so I was not surprised to see such united opposition to this attempt,” he added
Turkish people respond to president’s call to take to the streets
Tumay Berkin / Reuters
Hundreds of people gathered outside Turkey’s parliament buildings in the capital Ankara Saturday afternoon. Many waved Turkish flags in defiance to those who tried to overthrow the government.
Inside parliament appeared to be in ruins after it was bombed by troops who attempted the coup in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Tumay Berkin / Reuters
The government declared that order had been restored across the country after almost 3,000 military personnel involved in the coup were arrested on Saturday morning.
104 “coup plotters” were killed, authorities said.
Tumay Berkin / Reuters
In a text message sent to all mobile phone users in Turkey on Saturday morning, president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan encouraged citizens to “take to the streets against the movement by these military staff members who believe they can suppress the Turkish nation”.
Erdoğan described a public show of defiance as the “duty” of Turkey’s people.
Tumay Berkin / Reuters
“Reclaim your democracy and peace, proud Turkish nation,” Erdoğan wrote.
At height of tensions last night, Erdogan texted nation, urging people into streets and take control.
— Borzou Daragahi (@borzou)
Similar scenes took place outside police headquarters in Istanbul.
Anadolu Agency / Getty Images
Anadolu Agency / Getty Images
Many could be seen gathered around police vehicles as members of the military arrested after the coup were driven into the building.
A large Turkish flag was draped from the roof of Erdoğan’s residence in Istanbul’s Kisikli neighbourhood.
Anadolu Agency / Getty Images
More people still had gathered there to show support for the the government.
Erdoğan waved to the gathered crowds as he returned home.
Anadolu Agency / Getty Images
– Laura Silver
Dust settles after night of intense drama
Stringer . / Reuters
The extent of the damage from Friday night’s violent events began to emerge Saturday.
Images from inside Turkey’s parliament buildings in Ankara showed scenes of devastation after several explosions were reported in the area in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Initial reports said that twelve people were injured – two critically – in the incident.
Stringer . / Reuters
Trees appeared to have been torn down as a result of the explosions in the area surrounding Turkey’s parliament buildings.
Stringer . / Reuters
In Istanbul, women waved Turkish flags in celebration on the city’s Bosphorus Bridge, where troops involved in the coup had earlier surrendered.
Murad Sezer / Reuters
Civilians had battled against troops throughout the night on Friday to regain control of the bridge.
“The English would never be able to do this, but we did, we’re Turkish,” one woman was heard to shout at a passing foreigner, according to journalist Patrick Kingsley of Britain’s The Guardian newspaper in Istanbul.
Murad Sezer / Reuters
Elsewhere in Istanbul there were signs that normality was beginning to return.
Kemal Aslan / Reuters
Earlier Saturday, Turkey’s prime minister Binali Yildirim said that the “situation is completely under control”.
– Laura Silver
Foreign minister demands return of soldiers who arrived in Greece by helicopter
Helikopterle Yunanistan'a kaçan 8 hain askerin derhal teslim edilmesini istedik
— Mevlüt ÃavuÅoÄlu (@MevlutCavusoglu)
Turkey’s foreign minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu has demanded Greek authorities hand over eight “treacherous” soldiers who arrived in the country via helicopter Saturday.
Eight men were arrested after landing in Alexandroupolis, northern Greece, whereafter they claimed political asylum, Greek station ERT reported.
The Turkish military helicopter at Alexandroupolis airport. Sakis Mitrolidis / AFP / Getty Images
Flights from Turkey prohibited from flying into United States, US embassy says
A statement released by the US embassy in Turkey Saturday said that airline carriers from the US would not be traveling to Istanbul and Ankara airports, and that airline carriers traveling from Turkey, even via third party countries, would not be allowed entry into the US.
Security Message for U.S. Citizens: Istanbul's Atatürk Airport Security - July 16, 2016 https://t.co/oXPPU81BAo
— US Embassy Turkey (@USEmbassyTurkey)
The embassy encouraged American citizens in Turkey to stay indoors and avoid unnecessary travel.
US government employees were also told not to attempt to travel to or from Istanbul’s Ataturk airport due to “significantly diminished” security.
– Laura Silver
2,839 military personnel have been arrested following Friday’s attempted coup, Turkey’s prime minister Binali Yildirim said in Ankara Saturday.
Speaking in the Turkish capital alongside senior ministers, Yildirim said the figure included high-ranking officials and that the “situation is completely under control”.
He said that 161 people had been killed and 1,440 had been injured over the course of Friday night and Saturday morning. With the 104 “coup plotters” killed, the total death total is understood to be 265.
Even though Turkey does not have the death penalty, Yildirim said that to ensure something like this does not happen again, legal changes could be considered.
He said that the coup was a “black stain on Turkish democracy”, and the work of a “terrorist military organisation” against which the country had remained strong.
“It was not an uprising with the Turkish command, it was a terrorist uprising,” he said, according to Sky News’ translation of the address, which was delivered in Turkish.
He added that Turkey’s military and security forces had fought like heroes and that from now on 15 July would be known as a celebration of democracy in the country.
– Laura Silver.
104 “coup plotters” have been killed, the Turkish army’s acting chief of staff Umit Dundar told a news conference Saturday
Al Jazeera / Via youtube.com
Around the country, 90 more people had been killed, including 41 police officers, 47 civilians and two soldiers.
Breaking: Turkey military official says 194 people killed in putsch attempt, among them 47 civilians and 104 "coup plotters"
— Borzou Daragahi (@borzou)
The total death toll is now 194.
Dundar said that the coup had failed as a result of “historic cooperation between the state and the people of Turkey”.
He added: “we are grateful to every citizen who has stood for democracy. Turkey has closed the era of military coups once and for all and it is not to be open again”.
– Laura Silver
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