It was an emotional display by Turks, who rallied in headscarves and long dresses, T-shirts and work boots, some walking hand-in-hand with their children. Rather than toppling Turkey’s strongman president, the attempted coup that left some 265 dead and 1,440 wounded appears to have bolstered Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s popularity and grip on power.
“Just a small group from Turkish armed forces stood up against our government … but we, the Turkish nation, stand together and repulse it back,” Gozde Kurt, a 16-year-old student at the rally in Istanbul, said Sunday morning.
The Turkish government has accelerated its crackdown on alleged plotters of the botched coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, issuing dozens of arrest warrants for judges and prosecutors and detaining military officers.
The country’s justice minister confirmed that as many as 6,000 people, ranging from commanders to civil servants, have been detained over the incident.
The Yeni Safak newspaper used the headline “Traitors of the country,” while the Hurriyet newspaper declared “Democracy’s victory.”
Prayers are being read simultaneously from Turkey’s 85,000 mosques at noon to rally the country to defend its democracy and honour those who died in an attempted military coup.
Sela prayers are traditionally recited from mosques during funerals, though they are also performed to rally people. During Friday night’s attempted military coup, sela prayers were repeatedly recited from mosques across the country throughout the night to rally the people against the coup plotters.
Religious Affairs Directorate President Mehmet Görmez told private channel Ulke TV that “as a nation who wasn’t disturbed by the barrel of tanks pointed at the people or the sounds of F-16s flying overhead, I do not see anyone in this land who would be disturbed by the sound of sela. This tradition will continue.”
The unrest claimed at least 265 lives, according to a tally compiled from official statements. Yildirim said 161 people were killed and 1,440 wounded in the process of putting down the coup attempt, while Gen. Umit Dundar said at least 104 “coup plotters” had died.
By Saturday, Turkish authorities appeared to have neutralized the last threats from the attempted coup, but it was a greatly diminished Turkey that emerged from the chaos of the night before.
As dazed citizens stumbled through streets littered with the remains of tanks and armoured vehicles used by the renegade troops, authorities embarked on a sweeping roundup of thousands of people suspected of involvement in what appears to have been a long-planned effort to replace Turkey’s democratically elected government with a military junta.
The widespread sense of relief that the attempt had failed was tempered, however, by foreboding. Turkey, until recently hailed as a model of democracy in the Muslim world, must now confront the reality that it remains vulnerable to the kind of domestic and military upheaval that once earned the country a reputation as a chronically unstable state.
“People here are celebrating, but what they don’t understand is that they are part of a trap that Erdogan is setting for them. He’s going to use them for his own power,” said Ozgur Guleray, 30, a chef at a restaurant in downtown Istanbul who watched as thousands of revelers gathered in Taksim Square on Saturday evening to celebrate the government’s suppression of the coup attempt.
But a triumphant and combative Erdogan, addressing a huge crowd gathered in Istanbul Saturday evening, hailed the popular outpouring of support and vowed a tough response to the coup plotters.
“By confronting them and chasing them, we will overcome them,” he told the cheering supporters.
Officials claimed the judges and the coup plotters were loyal to moderate cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Erdogan has often accused of attempting to overthrow the government. Gulen, a staunch democracy advocate who lives in exile in Pennsylvania, is a former Erdogan ally turned bitter foe who has been put on trial in absentia in Turkey.
At a news conference Saturday in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania, Gulen strongly denied any role in or knowledge of the coup.
On Saturday. Erodgan had challenged President Barack Obama directly to turn over Gulen, saying Turkey’s NATO ally needs to do what is necessary “if we are truly strategic partners.”
The U.S. is awaiting a formal plea to turn over Gulen, said U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, dismissing as “irresponsible” any accusation of U.S. involvement in the uprising.
“We have not had a formal request for extradition — that has to come in a formal package” and be sent to the Justice Department, Kerry said on CNN’s “State of the Union” broadcast on Sunday.
“The United States is not harbouring anybody, we’re not preventing anything from happening,” Kerry said. “We think it’s irresponsible to have accusations of American involvement when we’re simply waiting for their request” for the extradition.
Emotional day as Turks celebrate failed coup, mourn death of hundreds | Toronto Star
Kerry also said that the coup had caught Washington by surprise.
“I don’t think anybody’s intelligence had information — particularly the Turkish intelligence,” he said
Turkey’s NATO allies lined up to condemn the coup attempt. Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg urged all sides to support Turkey’s democratically elected government.
Turkey’s military staged three coups between 1960 and 1980 and pressured Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan, a mentor of Erdogan, out of power in 1997
Article Appeared @https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2016/07/17/emotional-day-turks-celebrate-failed-coup-mourn-death-of-hundreds.html