International News

ANKARA, July 16 (APP/AFP) – A Turkish army faction backed by tanks
and fighter jets was waging a coup attempt against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday, but the strongman returned to Istanbul defiantly claiming to have regained control.
Soldiers and tanks took to the streets late on Friday and multiple
explosions rang out throughout the night in Ankara and Istanbul, the two
biggest cities of the strategic NATO country of 80 million people.
With officials insisting the takeover bid was falling apart,
officials said 60 people have been killed and 754 detained in a night of violence in Turkey’s major cities.
Dozens of soldiers backing the coup surrendered on the Bosphorus
bridge in Istanbul that they had held throughout the night, holding their hands above their heads as they were detained, television pictures showed.
Erdogan predicted that the putsch would fail and crowds of supporters
of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) came out onto the streets to try to block it.
After hours of chaos unseen in decades, the president ended
uncertainty over his whereabouts, flying into Istanbul airport in the early hours where he made a defiant speech and was greeted by hundreds of supporters.
Erdogan denounced the coup attempt as “treachery” but said he was
carrying out his functions and would keep on working “to the end”.
“What is being perpetrated is a treason and a rebellion. They will
pay a heavy price for this act of treason,” Erdogan said at the airport.
“We will not leave our country to occupiers.”