Thousands arrested in Turkey after failed coup attempt

What we know so far

• At least 265 people killed, 2,839 plotters arrested
• President Tayyip Erdogan has vowed to conduct a purge of the armed forces while a purge of the judiciary is already underway
• Uprising appears not to have been backed by the most senior ranks of the military
• Many world leaders have condemned the coup attempt and have supported the elected government
• What we don’t know: Failed coup attempt could still destabilize the country and the region

Turkish authorities rounded up nearly 3,000 suspected military plotters on
Saturday and ordered thousands of judges detained after thwarting a coup by
rebels using tanks and attack helicopters to try to topple President Tayyip Erdogan.

For several hours overnight on Friday violence shook Turkey’s two main
cities, as the armed faction which tried to seize power blocked a bridge in
Istanbul and strafed the headquarters of Turkish intelligence and parliament in
Ankara.

At least 265 people were killed. An official said 161 of them were mostly
civilians and police officers, while the remaining 104 were coup supporters.

But the coup attempt crumbled as Erdogan
rushed back to Istanbul from a Mediterranean holiday and urged people to take to
the streets to support his government against plotters he accused of trying to
kill him.

“They will pay a heavy price for this,” said Erdogan, launching a purge of the armed forces,
which last used force to stage a successful coup more than 30 years ago. “This
uprising is a gift from God to us because this will be a reason to cleanse our
army.”

Among those detained were top military commanders, including the head of the
Second Army which protects the country’s borders with Syria, Iraq and Iran,
state-run Anadolu news
agency said.

ANALYSIS: Once again, army rises up against pro-Islamic government in Turkey

Hundreds of soldiers were held in Ankara for alleged involvement in the coup,
leaving police stations overflowing.

Some had to be taken under armed police escort in buses to a sports stadium.
Reuters footage showed some of the detainees, handcuffed and stripped from the
waist up, sitting on the floor of one of the buses.

The government declared the situation under control, saying 2,839 people had
been rounded up, from foot soldiers to senior officers, including those who
formed “the backbone” of the rebellion.

Authorities also began a major crackdown in the judiciary over suspected
links to U.S.-based cleric Fethullah
Gulen, removing from their posts and ordering the
detention of nearly 3,000 prosecutors and judges, including from top courts.

Erdogan has
blamed the coup on supporters of Gulen, who
he has frequently accused of trying to foment uprising in the military, media
and judiciary.

Ten members of the High Council of Judges and Prosecutors and two members of
the Constitutional Court have already been detained, officials said.

A successful overthrow of Erdogan, who
has ruled the country of about 80 million people since 2003, would have marked
another seismic shift in the Middle East, five years after the Arab uprisings
erupted and plunged Turkey’s southern neighbour Syria into civil war.

However, a failed coup attempt could still destabilize the NATO member and
major U.S. ally that lies between the European Union and the chaos of Syria,
with Islamic State bombers targeting Turkish cities and the government also at
war with Kurdish separatists.

Erdogan, who
had been holidaying on the southwest coast when the coup was launched, flew into
Istanbul before dawn on Saturday and told thousands of flag-waving supporters at
the airport that the government remained at the helm.

A polarizing figure whose Islamist-rooted ideology lies at odds with
supporters of modern Turkey’s secular principles, Erdogan said the plotters had tried to attack him
in the resort town of Marmaris.

“They bombed places I had departed from right after I was gone,” he said.
“They probably thought we were still there.”

Erdogan’s AK
Party has long had strained relations with the military, which has a history of
mounting coups to defend secularism although it has not seized power directly
since 1980.

His conservative religious vision for Turkey’s future has also alienated many
ordinary citizens who accuse him of authoritarianism. Police used heavy force in
2013 to suppress mass protests demanding more freedom.

He commands the admiration and loyalty of millions of Turks, however,
particularly for raising living standards and restoring order to an economy once
beset by regular crises, which grew 4.8 per cent year-on-year in the first
quarter.

The violence is likely to hit a tourism industry already suffering from the
bombings, and business confidence is also vulnerable.

OPINION: A military coup is not Turkey’s solution

SMARTPHONE ADDRESS

In a night that sometimes verged on the bizarre, Erdogan frequently took to social media, even
though he is an avowed enemy of the technology when his opponents use it and
frequently targets Twitter and Facebook.

He addressed the nation via a video calling service, appearing on the
smartphone of a CNN Turk reporter who held it up to a studio camera.

He also urged Washington to deport Gulen, who
lives in self-imposed exile in the United States. The cleric, who once supported
Erdogan but
became a leading adversary, condemned the attempted coup and said he played no
role in it.

“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. I categorically deny such accusations,” Gulen said in a statement.

Kerry said the United States was willing to help Turkey as it tries to
identify those involved in the coup attempt, but made clear it would only act if
there was evidence against Gulen.

SOLDIERS SURRENDER

Gunfire and explosions had rocked both Istanbul and Ankara through the night
after soldiers took up positions in both cities and ordered state television to
read out a statement declaring they had taken power. However, by dawn the noise
of fighting had died down considerably.

About 50 soldiers involved in the coup surrendered on one of the bridges
across the Bosphorus
Strait in Istanbul after dawn on Saturday, abandoning their tanks with their
hands raised in the air. Reuters witnesses saw government supporters attack the
pro-coup soldiers who had surrendered.

By Saturday afternoon, CNN Turk reported that security forces had completed
an operation against coup plotters at the headquarters of the military general
staff. Security sources also said police detained about 100 military officers at
an air base in the southeast.

Neighbouring Greece arrested eight men aboard a Turkish military helicopter
which landed in the northern city of Alexandroupolis on Saturday, the Greek police
ministry said, adding that they had requested political asylum.

At one stage military commanders were held hostage by the plotters and by
Saturday evening – 24 hours after the coup was launched – some operations
against rebels were continuing.

Cavusoglu,
the foreign minister, said soldiers at the Incirlik air base, used by the United States to
launch air strikes on Islamic State targets in Syria, were involved in the
attempt. He said Turkey would resume operations with the U.S.-led coalition once
the anti-coup operations were completed.

LAWMAKERS IN HIDING

The coup began with warplanes and helicopters roaring over Ankara and troops
moving in to seal off the bridges over the Bosphorus, which separates Europe and Asia in
Istanbul.

Turkish maritime authorities reopened the Bosphorus to transiting tankers after shutting the
major trade route from the Black Sea to the Aegean for several hours for
security and safety reasons.

In the early hours of Saturday, lawmakers hid in shelters inside the
parliament building, which was fired on by tanks. An opposition deputy told
Reuters that parliament was hit three times and people had been wounded.

When parliament convened later in the day, the four main political parties –
running the gamut from Erdogan’s
right-wing Islamist-rooted AK Party to the left-of-centre, pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic
Party (HDP) – came together in a rare show of unity to condemn the attempted
coup.

A Turkish military commander also said fighter jets had shot down a
helicopter used by the coup plotters over Ankara.

Momentum turned against the coup plotters as the night wore on. Crowds defied
orders to stay indoors, gathering at major squares in Istanbul and Ankara,
waving flags and chanting.

“We have a prime minister, we have a chief of command, we’re not going to
leave this country to degenerates,” shouted one man, as groups of government
supporters climbed onto a tank near Ataturk airport.

FLIGHTS RESUME

Flag carrier Turkish Airlines resumed flights on Saturday, though some
foreign carriers cancelled weekend flights.

At the height of the action, rebel soldiers took control of TRT state
television, which announced a countrywide curfew and martial law. An announcer
read a statement on the orders of the pro-coup faction that accused the
government of eroding the democratic and secular rule of law. Turkey would be
run by a “peace council” that would ensure the safety of the population, the
statement said.

Turkey is one of the main backers of opponents of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria’s civil war and hosts 2.7
million Syrian refugees. It was a departure point last year for the biggest
influx of migrants to Europe since World War Two.

Turkey has suffered numerous bombings and shootings this year, including an
attack two weeks ago by Islamists at
Ataturk airport that killed more than 40 people, as well as those staged by
Kurdish militants.

After serving as prime minister from 2003, Erdogan was elected president in 2014 with plans
to alter the constitution to give the previously ceremonial presidency far
greater executive powers.

WORLD LEADERS REACT

U.S.
President Barack Obama expressed support for Turkey’s government and urged
parties on all sides of the crisis to avoid destabilizing the country and follow
the rule of law. But his secretary of state, John Kerry, warned Turkish Foreign
Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu that public suggestions of a U.S. role
in the plot were “utterly false” and harmful to relations.

Kerry said he had phoned the Turkish foreign minister and underlined
“absolute support for Turkey’s democratically elected, civilian government and
democratic institutions”.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry expressed concern about tensions in Turkey in the wake of the attempted military coup.

“The aggravation of the political situation in the context of the terrorist threats existing in the country and armed conflict in the region carry a high risk to international and regional stability,” the ministry said in a statement Saturday. “We call on the government and people of Turkey to solve the existing problems without violence, to respect the constitutional order.”

Tensions between Russia and Turkey have been strong since last year when Turkey shot down a Russian warplane near the border with Syria. However, relations appeared to be moving toward repair after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan issued an apology for the incident last month.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel says she condemns the coup attempt in Turkey, saying democratic institutions must be respected.

Merkel told reporters at the chancellery in Berlin on Saturday that it was “tragic that so many people paid for this coup attempt with their lives” and urged an end to the bloodshed.

She said “Germany stands on the side of all of those in Turkey who defend democracy and the rule of law.”

The Canadian government urged calm in Turkey amid a failed coup attempt Friday and advised Canadians not to travel to the country.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau issued a statement late Friday expressing concern about the uprising by members of Turkey’s military.

“We call for restraint by all parties,” Trudeau’s statement said. “Canada supports the preservation of Turkish democracy, and condemns any attempt to subvert Turkey’s democratic institutions by force of arms.

“The Government of Canada is being kept informed of developments in Turkey, and we are doing everything possible to ensure that the safety and security of Canadians in that country is maintained.”

With files from the Canadian Press and the Associated Press

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