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Members of the Turkish military said a coup was under way in the country, despite its elected president claiming that the attempt had failed and his government remained in power.
In a statement released through Turkish TV channels on Friday night, people claiming to speak for the Turkish military said the army was now in charge of the country and promised to uphold human rights.
In response, a spokesman for the country’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said the coup had been attempted by only a faction of the army and that he was still in command of the country.
“Turkey’s democratically elected president and government are in power. We will not tolerate attempts to undermine our democracy.”
He added: “A group within the armed forces has made an attempt to overthrow the democratically elected government outside the chain of command. The statement made on behalf of the armed forces wasn’t authorised by the military command. We urge the world to stand in solidarity with the Turkish people.”
Gunshots were heard in the capital Ankara as military planes flew low overhead. Army vehicles fanned through Istanbul, Turkey’s second city, with tanks seen outside the country’s main airport, and military trucks were filmed blocking the bridges connecting the city’s Asian and European sides. A soldier was filmed telling passersby: “It’s a coup, go home.”
Photograph: Gokhan Tan/Getty Images
Turkey’s prime minister, Binali Yildirim, echoed the president’s words, saying: “Some people illegally undertook an illegal action outside of the chain of command. The government elected by the people remains in charge. This government will only go when the people say so.”
Turkey has a long history of coups, the most recent occurring in 1997, and one of the most brutal in 1980. President Erdoğan’s Islamist-leaning government was believed to be in a stronger position than most civilian administrations, shoring up his position during a decade of economic success.
But recent events in Turkey and across the Middle East have destabilised the country, with Kurdish rebels fighting a new insurgency in the south-east of the country. The Syrian civil war has also spilled over into Turkey, most notably with Islamic State mounting a series of terror attacks across the country in the past year, killing hundreds.