ANKARA: 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.”
