Mass arrests in Turkey after failed coup

 

At least 161 people were killed and 1,440 wounded in an attempted coup on Friday night in Turkey.

Following the failed coup, the Turkish government said it had arrested 2,839 soldiers, including high-ranking officers, describing the incident as a “black stain on Turkish democracy.”

Among those apprehended were two army generals.

There were explosions and firing in the country on Friday night and thousands were reported to have heeded a call by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan to rise up against the coup plotters.

The Turkish authorities also stated that 104 suspected coup plotters had been killed while 2,745 judges across the country had been dismissed in the wake of the coup.

Erdogan claimed that a “parallel structure”, said to be a reference to Fethullah Gulen, which the British Broadcasting Corporation described as “a powerful but reclusive United States-based Muslim cleric” was responsible for the crisis.

In a televised speech on Saturday night, he called on the US to extradite Gulen.

While denying the allegation of being responsible for the coup, Gulen said he condemned “in the strongest terms, the attempted military coup in Turkey.”

Meanwhile, the Turkish Ambassador to Nigeria, Hakan Çakıl, in a terse statement issued online stated that a clique in the country’s armed forces was responsible for the coup.

“The situation unfolded in Turkey was a coup attempt to overthrow the democratically-elected government. This attempt was foiled by the Turkish people in unity and solidarity. Our President and Government are in charge. Turkish Armed Forces was not involved in the coup attempt in its entirety. It was conducted by a clique within the Armed Forces and received a well-deserved response from our nation,” Çakıl said.

In a related development, the President of UFUK Dialogue, Kamil Kemanci, condemned the failed coup, saying it was undemocratic.

“Similarly, I strongly condemn the attempted military coup in Turkey and reiterate that there is no place for military interventions in democracy and shall remain committed to and be advocate of peace and democracy,” Kemanci said.