Saturday, July 16, 2016

Turkish leader announces premature end of military coup

Turkey

June 15, 2016 - A faction of the Turkish military attempted to over the government after dark, deploying tanks and attack helicopters at both capital city Ankara and the largest city Istanbul. Some soldiers temporarily seized the offices of the state-run media where they forced an announcer to read out a statement declaring they have seized power as well as curfew declaration. Even the Turkish branch of CNN were unsafe from this short-lived uprising as well.

Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on his supporters to take on the streets on Istanbul, where they overpowered the coup soldiers, even they're trying to called on everyone to stay indoors.

As dawn approaches, the coup plotting to overthrow the government came to a premature end and the Turkish leader announced that the coup is over, but fighting in the capital city is still going on.

Based on the reports, over 1,500 were arrested, over 90 were killed, and 1,150 injured in the failed coup attempt.

This isn't the first time Turkey faced serious coup attempts by the opposition. In 1960, military officers rebelled against the autocratic administration by detaining senior officials and assuming control of the government. The following year, they shifted the administration back to civilian rule with a general election. Two decades later, small political parties were engaged in bitter fighting and high inflation was causing economic and social upheaval. Top military officials seized power and detained the whole government. In 1982, they created a new constitution that strengthened the authority of the president and the administration was transferred to civilian rule a year later.

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