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An American who arrived in Istanbul for a layover just hours before an attempted military coup described the chaos as he tried to leave a cafe in the city to head to the airport, to try to leave Istanbul earlier than he had originally planned. (July 15) AP
A Turkish soldier who participated in the attempted coup, center in blue, is apprehended by other men on Istanbul's Bosporus Bridge on July 16, 2016.(Photo: Selcuk Samiloglu, AP)
ISTANBUL — Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saturday that government forces have crushed a coup attempt and that the plotters will<span style="color: Red;">*</span>"pay a heavy price for their treason."
After a night of turmoil in the streets of major cities, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency said<span style="color: Red;">*</span>all soldiers involved in the attempted coup at the military headquarters in the capital, Ankara, had<span style="color: Red;">*</span>been taken into custody.The report saids anti-terrorism police will now conduct a “detailed search” at the headquarters.
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim told reporters Saturday that 2,839 officers of various ranks have been taken into military custody.
Former Air Force Commander Ak?n Öztürk, described as one of masterminds behind the coup attempt, was<span style="color: Red;">*</span>detained in Ankara,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the Daily Sabah newspaper reported.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>
Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu says on Twitter, meanwhile, that Greece as agreed to return eight soldiers who landed in Greece on board a helicopter, seeking asylum.
The prime minister<span style="color: Red;">*</span>said those who opened fire against their fellow citizens were more"despicable" than Kurdish terrorist organizations.
Yildirim<span style="color: Red;">*</span>noted that while capital punishment is banned under Turkish law, parliament<span style="color: Red;">*</span>will discuss other<span style="color: Red;">*</span>measures<span style="color: Red;">*</span>or legal arrangements that should be put in place "to prevent crazy attempts of this kind in<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the future.
In an unprecedented show of unity, all four parties represented in parliament met<span style="color: Red;">*</span>to issue a joint declaration Saturday condemning the attempted coup against<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Erdogan’s government.
The extraordinary session began with a minute of silence in honor of those who lost their lives during the coup, followed by the singing of the national anthem.
Erdogan<span style="color: Red;">*</span>vowed retribution after<span style="color: Red;">*</span>a chaotic night of clashes between loyalists and rebels that left almost<span style="color: Red;">*</span>200<span style="color: Red;">*</span>people dead and may not be entirely over.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>"In Turkey the army is not<span style="color: Red;">*</span>governing the state and they cannot, and this should be known by all," Erdogan said, addressing crowds in Istanbul on Saturday morning. "The government is in control."
He said the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>coup's supporters — rogue elements in<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the military<span style="color: Red;">*</span>— would<span style="color: Red;">*</span>"pay a heavy price for their treason to Turkey” and that<span style="color: Red;">*</span>“those who stain the military’s reputation must leave. The process has started today, and it will continue just as we fight other terrorist groups.”
While Erdogan insisted the government was in control,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>some fighting appeared to continue into Saturday.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Gen. Umit Dundar, a<span style="color: Red;">*</span>newly appointed acting military chief, told the Associated Press that at least 194<span style="color: Red;">*</span>people died in clashes; 41 police officers, two soldiers, 47 civilians and 104 people described as “coup plotters.”
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In Istanbul, images on television and social media on Saturday morning showed soldiers with their hands up walking away from tanks on the city's Bosphorus Bridge.
The coup attempt began late Friday<span style="color: Red;">*</span>with a statement from the military saying it had seized control “to reinstall the constitutional order, democracy, human rights and freedoms, to ensure that the rule of law once again reigns in the country, for law and order to be reinstated.”
USA TODAY
Social media shows tension of Turkey coup in real time
Political turmoil has engulfed Turkey for months. There has been<span style="color: Red;">*</span>a crackdown on dissidents and opposition media and renewed conflict in the mainly Kurdish areas of the southeast. Critics blame Erdogan’s increasingly authoritarian rule for eroding democracy and secular laws.
Meanwhile, Turkey, a NATO member and a key partner in U.S.-led efforts to defeat the Islamic State group, has seen a wave of terrorist attacks that have crippled one if its biggest industries: tourism.
The Turkish government has also<span style="color: Red;">*</span>indicated that it thinks a Muslim<span style="color: Red;">*</span>cleric living in exile in Pennsylvania may be partly behind the coup.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Fethullah Gulen<span style="color: Red;">*</span>promotes a philosophy that blends a mystical form of Islam with staunch advocacy of democracy, education and<span style="color: Red;">*</span>science.
Y. Alp Aslandogan of the New York-based Alliance for Shared Values, a group that promotes Gulen’s ideas, denied the claims.
USA TODAY
Sleepless in Istanbul: Turks take to street to resist, cheer coup attempt
Erdogan was vacationing in southwest Turkey when the coup began. He issued a defiant address to the nation in a FaceTime call from his mobile phone.
He called on his followers to rally in the city squares and to flood the streets to confront the coup plotters.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>"I've never seen anything more powerful than the people," he said.
In Washington,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>President Obama urged<span style="color: Red;">*</span>all parties in Turkey to support Erdogan's government.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said in a statement Saturday that democracy needed to be defended and<span style="color: Red;">*</span>condemned “any attempts to change the democratic order in Turkey by force.”
Hjelmgaard reported from Berlin
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