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Turkey's military is attempting a coup of the country and declared martial law. Citizens reported hearing gunfire and seeing military jets flying over the capital city of Ankara.
Turkish army tanks remain on a road in Istanbul, Turkey, on July 16, 2016.(Photo: Tolga Bozoglu, EPA)
ISTANBUL — Turkish President Recep Erdogan addressed a large crowd in<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Istanbul Saturday morning, as security personnel rounded up suspects<span style="color: Red;">*</span>after a chaotic coup attempt that sent tanks and demonstrators into the streets while aircraft battled overhead.
"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. "The government is in control."
Erdogan's return, reported by state-run media reports,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>indicates that the government <span style="color: Red;">*</span>appeared to have repelled the attempted coup, while fighting, intrigue and accusations continued in Istanbul and the capital, Ankara.
An official in the president's office said 60 people have been killed during the coup attempt, and 336<span style="color: Red;">*</span>have<span style="color: Red;">*</span>been arrested in the coup plot, the Associated Press reports.
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim<span style="color: Red;">*</span>called all legislators for an emergency meeting Saturday, according to state-run Andolu Agency.
The coup apparently<span style="color: Red;">*</span>escalated quickly from the seizing of television stations to<span style="color: Red;">*</span>an armed confrontation between loyalists and crowds of government supporters on one side, and a military group calling itself the Peace at Home Council on the other.
Trouble became apparent when travelers reported on their Twitter accounts flights had been canceled at the Istanbul airport<span style="color: Red;">*</span>while Turkish military jets were flying low over the city. Military vehicles blocked two bridges spanning<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the Bosporus Strait that separate the European and Anatolian sides of Istanbul.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Turkish news agency Dogan reported<span style="color: Red;">*</span>soldiers fired<span style="color: Red;">*</span>on people trying to cross the Bosporus bridge, wounding several.
A man stands in front of a tank in the entrance to Istanbul's Ataturk airport, on July 16, 2016.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>(Photo: Ismail Coskun, AP)
Reports poured in of military units seizing newsrooms at state-controlled television stations.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Then a military helicopter fired on a headquarters building of Turkey's special forces police in Ankara, killing<span style="color: Red;">*</span>17 police officers, according to the Andolu Agency. A<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Turkish military F-16 shot a Sikorsky helicopter out of the sky, the agency said.
CNN Türk reported that the coup attempt got underway in Ankara<span style="color: Red;">*</span>when two busloads of soldiers entered the headquarters of the state-run TRT news agency, and the channel then started to broadcast a stream of weather forecasts,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Hurriet<span style="color: Red;">*</span>reported.
CNN Türk tweeted that<span style="color: Red;">*</span>soldiers had<span style="color: Red;">*</span>landed in Dogan Media Center where the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>broadcaster is based and<span style="color: Red;">*</span>entered the studio. After they<span style="color: Red;">*</span>entered the control room, the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>CNN Türk<span style="color: Red;">*</span>anchor said on the air, "That's it, we now have to go."
An anchorwoman at TRT1 TV read a script approved by the military who seized her newsroom, referring to Erdogan as a traitor.
The group's statement said it took action<span style="color: Red;">*</span>“to reinstall the constitutional order, democracy, human rights and freedoms, to ensure that the rule of law once again reigns in the country, for the law and order to be reinstated,”<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the private Dogan agency reported.
Anadolu Agency reported that a bomb hit the Turkish parliament in Ankara, while CNN Türk<span style="color: Red;">*</span>television reported some police officers and parliament workers were injured in the attack.
Erdogan, who'd been vacationing earlier Friday on the Turkish coastline, issued a defiant message in a FaceTime call to<span style="color: Red;">*</span>NTV<span style="color: Red;">*</span>on his iPhone. The coup was a failure, he declared, and his government remained in charge. He called on his followers to rally in the city squares and to flood the streets to confront the coup plotters.
"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 the government of President<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Erdogan.
Thousands of people<span style="color: Red;">*</span>heeded Erdogan's call and took to the streets, backing<span style="color: Red;">*</span>down the military early Saturday by climbing onto tanks and blocking movement of military vehicles.
A lawyer for the Turkish government, Robert Amsterdam, said "there are indications" that a cleric living in exile in Pennsylvania<span style="color: Red;">*</span>had<span style="color: Red;">*</span>"direct involvement" with the coup plotters.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Amsterdam said he and his firm had attempted multiple times to warn the U.S. government of the threat posed by Fethullah Gulen and his movement, according to the Associated Press.
The president of <span style="color: Red;">*</span>a group that promotes Gulen's ideas denied the claim.
"We condemn any military intervention in (the) domestic politics of turkey," said Y. Alp Aslandogan of the New York-based Alliance for Shared Values.
Supporters of Recep Tayyip Erdogan shout slogans at the Taksim Square in Istanbul, Turkey, on July 16, 2016.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>(Photo: Sedat Suna, EPA)
USA TODAY
Turkey has a history of military coups
As both sides claimed the upper hand,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Turkish Prime Minister<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Binali Yildirim challenged the military group's<span style="color: Red;">*</span>claim that it was in charge, saying<span style="color: Red;">*</span>only that there had been "an uprising,"<span style="color: Red;">*</span>according to the Hurriet Daily News.<span style="color: Red;">*</span> He said<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Turkey would never allow any “initiative that would interrupt democracy.”
In Ankara, the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>U.S. Embassy<span style="color: Red;">*</span>issued an emergency message urging American citizens to stay indoors.
"We encourage U.S. citizens to shelter in place and do not go the U.S. Embassy or Consulates at this time," the embassy said. The U.S. Air Force operates out of the Incirlik Air Base in south central Turkey.
The Pentagon released a statement saying it was "taking appropriate steps to ensure the safety and security of our service members, civilians, their families, and our facilities."
The statement said there had been<span style="color: Red;">*</span>no impact at<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Incirlik Air Base, and air operations against Islamic State forces were continuing.
There have been three successful coups in Turkey, a NATO ally, since 1960, and in 1997. Then, the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>military carried out a "soft" coup, issuing directives<span style="color: Red;">*</span>to the Turkish government that it was forced to accept. The military has cast itself as the traditional protector of secular, democratic rule.
Contributing: Michael Burke in McLean,Va.
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