Turkey PM says attempted coup under way by military group

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Guardian:

Turkey’s prime minister Binali Yildirim has said a group within Turkey’s military has engaged in what appeared to be an attempted coup.

Live Turkey coup attempt: gunfire in Ankara as military aircraft fly over capital

Turkish PM Binali Yıldırım says security forces are tackling situation after parts of armed forces launched coup attempt

 

Yildirim told NTV television on Friday: “It is correct that there was an attempt.”

 

Yildirim didn’t provide details, but said Turkey would never allow any “initiative that would interrupt democracy”.

 

Gunshots were heard in the Turkish capital of Ankara, a Reuters witness said, as military jets and helicopters were seen flying overhead.

Reuters witnesses in Istanbul, Turkey’s biggest city, also spotted helicopters overhead, while the city’s Bosphorus bridge and Fatih Sultan Mehmet bridge were both closed, local television channels reported, without giving a reason.

 

CNN Turkey showed two military vehicles and a group of soldiers lined up at the entrance of one of the bridges in Turkey’s biggest city.

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Bloomberg:

Turkey’s army says it seized power in the country as warplanes flew over the capital and tanks blocked roads in Istanbul. Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said his government is still in control and will resist.

The army said in an e-mailed statement that it took power to restore freedom and democracy. It said all international agreements will be honored.

 

The coup effort won’t be permitted to succeed, Yildirim told NTV television. He said army units have besieged “some institutions,” and he said police -- traditionally closer to his government than the army -- have been ordered to use arms if necessary. He said the elected government remains in power.

It wasn’t immediately clear how much of the country is now under military control.

 

Since 1960, the NATO member has experienced at least three takeovers by the secular-minded army. But since the Islamist-rooted Ak Party government came to power in 2002, the political influence of the military has been trimmed.

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Erdogan out next?

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[Valin]

We Will Know More Later Tonight

[Valin]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRSfhUBlzp0

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Erdogan evidently was out of country and tried to fly back but has been turned away.... Seeking landing rights or asylum in Germany.... (per twitter so your mileage may vary)

 

He tried to Facetime with a CNN reporter on the air (yeah I know) and told people to take to the streets, before being cutoff by another call coming into the reporters phone....

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BLM is not happy on impact of coverage of their plans for the evening...

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Well not the best way to project power and still being in control.....

 

[Geee]

Turkey is a NATO member, but I think that would only be for outside threats not internal???

[Valin]

BLM is not happy on impact of coverage of their plans for the evening...

 

[Valin]

CNN

Katie Hunt
July 16, 2016 4:44am

Erdogan says law enforcement has started arresting military officers.

President Erdogan has been speaking from Istanbul’s Attaturk airport. He says law enforcement has started arresting military officers of various ranks.

He added that the hotel in the seaside province of Marmaris, where he was visiting when the coup attempt happened, was bombed after he left.

[Valin]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TsjtYatA78

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Turkish military's attempted coup crumbles as President Erdogan returns

 

The attempted Turkish military coup appeared to crumble in the early hours of Saturday after crowds answered President Tayyip Erdogan's call to take to the streets to support him.

 

Erdogan, who had been holidaying on the coast when the coup was launched, flew into Istanbul before dawn on Saturday and was shown on TV appearing among a crowd of supporters outside the airport, which the coup plotters had failed to secure.

 

The uprising was an "act of treason", and those responsible would pay a heavy price, he later told reporters at a hastily arranged news conference. Arrests of officers were under way, and it would go higher up the ranks, culminating in the cleansing of the military.

 

 

People demonstrate outside Ataturk international airport during an attempted coup in Istanbul, Turkey.

[Valin]

BBC: Turkey: Mass arrests after coup bid quashed, says PM
7/16/16

Some 2,839 soldiers, including high-ranking officers, have been arrested over an attempted coup that is now over, says Turkey's PM Binali Yildirim.

In a night he called a "black stain on Turkish democracy", he said 161 people had been killed and 1,440 wounded.

Explosions and gunfire were heard in Ankara, Istanbul and elsewhere overnight and thousands of Turks heeded President Erdogan's call to rise up against the coup-plotters.

It is not clear who is behind the coup.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan blamed a "parallel structure", in a clear reference to Fethullah Gulen, a powerful but reclusive US-based Muslim cleric he accuses of fomenting unrest.

However, in a statement, Mr Gulen rejected any suggestion he had links to the events, saying he condemned "in the strongest terms, the attempted military coup in Turkey".

 

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Things seem dicey. Our airbase there has power cutoff and no fly zone imposed.

 

And now from the AP:

 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan demands the US extradite the Muslim cleric he blames for attempted coup.

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Things seem dicey. Our airbase there has power cutoff and no fly zone imposed.

 

And now from the AP:

 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan demands the US extradite the Muslim cleric he blames for attempted coup.

 

 

If we had a Real President the reply would be...Or..What?

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News reports are that Obama has been briefed several times today on Turkey and the airbase.

I feel much better....

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News reports are that Obama has been briefed several times today on Turkey and the airbase.

I feel much better....

 

Yes, whew. That's a relief. I'm assuming none of the briefings interfered with his golf game.

[Geee]

Turkey's coup may have failed – but history shows it won’t be long before another one succeeds

 

Recep Tayyip Erdogan had it coming. The Turkish army was never going to remain compliant while the man who would recreate the Ottoman Empire turned his neighbours into enemies and his country into a mockery of itself. But it would be a grave mistake to assume two things: that the putting down of a military coup is a momentary matter after which the Turkish army will remain obedient to its sultan; and to regard at least 161 deaths and more than 2,839 detained in isolation from the collapse of the nation-states of the Middle East.

 

For the weekend’s events in Istanbul and Ankara are intimately related to the breakdown of frontiers and state-belief – the assumption that Middle East nations have permanent institutions and borders – that has inflicted such wounds across Iraq, Syria, Egypt and other countries in the Arab world. Instability is now as contagious as corruption in the region, especially among its potentates and dictators, a class of autocrat of which Erdogan has been a member ever since he changed the constitution for his own benefit and restarted his wicked conflict with the Kurds.

 

Needless to say, Washington’s first reaction was instructive. Turks must support their “democratically elected government”. The “democracy” bit was rather hard to swallow; even more painful to recall, however, was the very same government’s reaction to the overthrow of Mohamed Morsi’s “democratically elected” government in Egypt in 2013 – when Washington very definitely did not ask Egypt’s people to support Morsi and quickly gave its support to a military coup far more bloody than the attempted putsch in Turkey. Had the Turkish army been successful, be sure Erdogan would have been treated as dismissively as the unfortunate Morsi.

But what do you expect when Western nations prefer stability to freedom and dignity? That’s why they are prepared to accept Iran’s troops and loyal Iraqi militiaman joining in the battle against Isis – as well as the poor 700 missing Sunnis who “disappeared” after the recapture of Fallujah – and that’s why the “Assad must go” routine has been quietly dropped. Now that Bashar al-Assad has outlived David Cameron’s premiership – and will almost certainly outlast Obama’s presidency – the regime in Damascus will look with wondering eyes at the events in Turkey this weekend.

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/turkey-coup-erdogan-ankara-istanbul-military-army-turkey-s-coup-may-have-failed-but-history-shows-a7140521.html

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Turkey coup attempt: Some 6,000 people detained, says minister

7/17/16

 

Turkey has detained 6,000 people over Friday's failed coup and the number is expected to rise further, Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag has said. The sweep has included high-ranking soldiers and 2,700 judges. More than 50 senior soldiers were detained in the western province of Denizli on Sunday.

 

Mr Bozdag described the arrests as a "clean-up operation".

 

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The arrests reportedly include Gen Erdal Ozturk, commander of the Third Army; Gen Adem Huduti, commander of the Second Army; and Akin Ozturk, the former Chief of Air Staff. Maj Gen Ozhan Ozbakir, commander of the Denizli garrison, was among the senior military figures arrested on Sunday, Turkey's Anadolu news agency reports.

One of Turkey's most senior judges, Alparslan Altan, has also been taken into custody.

 

Eight Turkish soldiers who fled to Greece and claimed political asylum have appeared in court there charged with illegal entry.

 

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