Coup In Turkey - The Whole Story

Some 6,000 people have been detained in Turkey over a failed coup at the weekend which has stunned the country.

Here is what we know so far about the dramatic events of Friday night and how the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has responded.

Coup attempt 

Soldiers shut down two of the bridges spanning the Bosphorus in Istanbul at around 7:30 pm (1630 GMT) and shortly after, military jets were heard flying low in the capital Ankara. 

At around 11:30 pm, a group within the military announced it had seized control of Turkey and that the country was now under martial law. Troops appeared on the streets of Istanbul and Ankara. 

Erdogan, addressing the nation via a FaceTime call to the CNN Turk television channel, urged people to take to the streets and resist the coup, which they did in their thousands. 

Soldiers in Istanbul opened fire on protesters and fighting erupted in Ankara, with planes bombing the parliament building. Erdogan flew into Istanbul early Saturday where he was greeted by a sea of supporters, and shortly after the government announced it had regained control and that the coup had failed. 

A total of 265 people were killed, according to official figures — 161 civilians and regular troops, and 104 coup plotters.

Coup over

Authorities wasted no time in launching a ruthless crackdown to root out suspected coup plotters in their own ranks. But in a sign that the situation has yet to return completely to normal, security forces and putschists briefly clashed at an air base in the central city of Konya on Sunday. 

There was also an incident Sunday evening at Istanbul’s second airport Sabiha Gokcen, where police fired warning shots at putschists who were resisting arrest. They eventually surrendered. 

Those behind the coup bid

It remains unclear who exactly was behind the attempted power grab. The coup was declared by a group within the army calling itself the Council for Peace in the Homeland, saying it was intervening “to ensure and restore constitutional order, democracy, human rights and freedoms”. 

Erdogan has furiously pointed blame at his arch-foe Fethullah Gulen, a US-based Islamic preacher whose Hizmet movement has a powerful presence in Turkish society, including the media, police and judiciary. 

Gulen has categorically denied any involvement in the plot and has suggested it could have been staged by Erdogan himself to cement his grip on power, a theory that has been raised by other critics and some analysts.

Governments reaction

By Sunday some 6,000 people including top army commanders, judges and prosecutors had been detained as Erdogan vows to stamp out the “virus” of the putschists. 

These include 29 generals and 2,389 soldiers, according to Turkish media reports. A military aide to Erdogan, Ali Yazici, was also detained. The crackdown is not limited to the military, with arrest warrants issued for 2,745 judges and prosecutors, according to state-run news agency Anadolu. 

The suspects are being charged with membership of an “armed terrorist organisation” and attempting to overthrow the government by force, the Hurriyet Daily News reported.

 The message from authorities is clear: they will show no mercy in the wake of the coup.