After a night of shooting, people in the square wrapped in flags, tanks, explosions, dead and wounded, the coup attempt attempted on Friday evening in Turkey, when, around 22 pm, the military occupied the nerve centers of Turkey, from the airport to the headquarters of the government party, from the police headquarters to the intelligence headquarters to the presidential palace.
The General Staff of the Turkish army surprisingly announced that it had taken power in the country "to restore democratic order and freedom", but already at 2 in the morning, just 4 hours after the announcement, the Turkish premier Binali Yildrim assured: "The situation is largely under control", while state television, occupied and blocked by the military, resumed broadcasting. And President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was on holiday in the Aegean Sea and initially escaped on board a flight, returned to Istanbul, where a cheering crowd was waiting for him. "I want to thank you for what you did tonight on my behalf and on behalf of the nation," he said at dawn outside Istanbul airport, surrounded by a crowd of thousands of supporters waving Turkish flags and praising Allah. "Let's stay together - he added – one nation, one flag, one homeland, one state».
According to the government (which has regained control of the bridges over the Bosphorus in Istanbul, blocked at the time of the coup) the total dead would be over 260 - including 104 coup plotters and 161 civilians and government forces - and 2.839 arrested among the military, according to the reconstruction almost three thousand arrested: said the Minister of Justice Bekir Bozdag. Police chief Celalettin Lekesiz reports instead of 16 coup leaders killed. Interior chief Efkan Ala announced that 29 colonels and 5 generals have been removed from their posts. Freed on Saturday morning Halusi Akar, head of the Turkish armed forces kidnapped by rebel soldiers in an air base on the outskirts of Ankara during the attempted coup.
