Night of turmoil: Over 260 killed, 2,800 soldiers held as citizens foil Turkey coup

In the evening, Defence Minister Fikri Isik said no area in the country was out of the government’s control, even though it was too early to say the threat of the coup had been completely eliminated.

Among those detained were Gen. Erdal Ozturk, commander of the Istanbul-based Third Army Corps, and Alparslan Altan, a member of the country’s top court and a senior judicial figure, TV stations reported.

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Gen. Ozturk will face charges of treason, according to an official and media reports. Disciplinary actions extended to the judicial system, as an oversight body, the High Council of Judges and Prosecutors, announced that 2,745 judges had been dismissed, the Anadolu agency reported. A late night report said the judges and prosecutors had been detained.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim called the insurrection “a stain in the history of democracy” at a news conference on Saturday in Ankara, the capital. He put the death toll in the clashes at 265, with 1,440 people wounded, and said 2,839 military personnel had been detained.

As the insurrection unfolded Friday night, beginning with the seizing of two bridges in Istanbul by military forces, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was not heard from for hours. He finally addressed the nation from an undisclosed location, speaking on his cellphone’s FaceTime app — a dramatic scene that seemed to suggest a man on the verge of losing power.

But in the early hours of Saturday, he landed in Istanbul, a strong sign that the coup was failing.

Erdogan placed blame for the intrigue on the followers of Fethullah Gulen, a Muslim cleric living in exile in Pennsylvania, who was the president’s ally until a bitter falling out three years ago. Gulen’s followers were known to have a strong presence in Turkey’s police and judiciary, but less so in the military.

On Saturday morning, Erdogan said, referring to Gulen, “I have a message for Pennsylvania: You have engaged in enough treason against this nation. If you dare, come back to your country.”

In the evening, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said he had made clear in a call with US counterpart John Kerry that followers of Gulen were behind a coup attempt, but had not directly discussed the cleric’s possible extradition.

“The topic of extradition did not come up directly in our conversation yesterday. However, I said very directly once again that this was an attempt by Gulen, who is residing in their country, and his structure within the military,” he said.

Cavusoglu said the military now needed to be “cleansed” of Gulenist influence. “Once this cleansing is finished our military will be stronger, our soldiers will be stronger, providing better support and coordination to NATO.”

He said soldiers at the Incirlik air base in southern Turkey, used by the US to conduct air strikes against Islamic State terrorists in neighbouring Syria, had been involved in the coup attempt, and that arrests had been made.

“Once these operations are completed, we will continue our fight against Daesh (Islamic State) with either coalition nations, or within the NATO framework, and resume our cooperation with NATO,” Cavusoglu said.

In a statement released on the website of his group, Alliance for Shared Values, Gulen, however, condemned the coup and supported the country’s democratic process.

“As someone who suffered under multiple military coups during the past five decades, it is especially insulting to be accused of having any link to such an attempt,” Gulen wrote. “I categorically deny such accusations.”

Erdogan said that during the hours of the attempted coup, Turkish fighter jets had bombed tanks on the streets of Ankara, and that a military helicopter being used by the coup plotters had been shot down.

There was also a battle early Saturday at Turkey’s main intelligence headquarters in Ankara, which government forces later secured, and a Turkish official said the intelligence chief, Hakan Fidan, had been taken to a secure location.

In a news conference on Saturday, Turkey’s top military officer, Gen. Umit Dundar, the acting head of the general staff, said that “the coup attempt was rejected by the chain of command immediately”.

“The people have taken to the streets and voiced their support for democracy,” he said, adding that “the nation will never forget this betrayal.”

As Turkey began waking up after a long and in many ways surreal evening, it appeared that the elected government had re-established control. But many questions remained unanswered, including who exactly had been behind the plot and what the longer-term fallout would be to the political system of Turkey.

Early Saturday, soldiers surrendered on a bridge that traverses the Bosporus, one of two bridges that the military shut down as the coup attempt began Friday evening. Footage showed abandoned military clothing and helmets along the bridge. The government also moved on a military school in Istanbul, arresting dozens.

President Barack Obama reaffirmed his country’s “unwavering support” to the democratically-elected government, even as he called on Turkey’s leaders to respect “the rule of law” after the coup attempt.

“The President reiterated the United States’ unwavering support for the democratically-elected, civilian government of Turkey,” the White House said in a readout. “…The President and his team lamented the loss of life and registered the vital need for all parties in Turkey to act within the rule of law and to avoid actions that would lead to further violence or instability.”

Speaking from Luxembourg during a European tour, Secretary of State Kerry said, “We stand by the government of Turkey.”

On Gulen, Kerry said, “We fully anticipate that there will be questions raised about Mr Gulen. And obviously, we invite the government of Turkey, as we always do, to present us with any legitimate evidence that withstands scrutiny, and the United States will accept that and look at it and make judgments about it appropriately.”

Turkey has a long history of military involvement in politics — there have been three coups since 1960 — and as the country became deeply polarised in recent years between supporters of Erdogan’s Islamist government and those loyal to Turkey’s secular traditions, many wondered if the military would intervene. Some, quietly, had even hoped it would.

But once the coup was attempted, people in the country, even those bitterly opposed to Erdogan, seemed to have no desire for a return to military rule. Turks across the political spectrum, including the main opposition parties that represent secular Turks, nationalists and Kurds, opposed the coup. So did many top generals, highlighting that the attempt apparently did not have deep support even in the military.

— With agency inputs