Thousands of people gathered for the “national unity march” Saturday at the Bosporus Bridge where putschists killed dozens of civilians in Istanbul last year on the night of the coup attempt.
The bridge has since been renamed Bridge of the Martyrs of July 15.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım will take part in the march. The president will return to Ankara and at 2300 GMT give a speech in parliament to mark the time it was bombed.
Some 32 civilians and two police officers were killed when they confronted the putschists taking over Istanbul’s Bosporus Bridge on July 15 during the coup attempt blamed on infiltrators of the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ).
The takeover of the bridge was one of the iconic moments during the coup bid. A large crowd of civilians and police officers had streamed onto the bridge connecting the city’s Asian and European sides to convince the soldiers to surrender.
