According to reports from Turkish media agencies, armed conflict now seems to be over, while anti-coup operations and arrests are gaining in momentum. As we reported last night, government channels are actively blaming FETO (“Fethullah Terrorist Organization”), a tight-knit group of followers of the influential preacher Fethullah Gulen.
Gulenists, once staunch allies to President Tayyip Erdogan and his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), are believed to have long infiltrated top positions in the Turkish state. Turkish government has been adamantly trying to seed out Gulenist networks, often called the “parallel state” or the “parallel organization”, from state posts following a fall-out in December 2013. Analysts have noted, however, that government efforts against Gulenists within the country’s armed forces have been less extensive and effective compared to restructurings in police corps or state bureaucracy. The attempt indeed comes two weeks before the country’s highest annual military-government administrative meeting, where reportedly a large number of officers were to be sacked from the army.
While a no-fly zone is in place over Istanbul, the state has regained control of both the Ataturk International Airport and both Bosphorus bridges earlier this morning. The situation in Ankara is also said to have stabilized.
The High Command of Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) has condemned the attempt, confirming it to be the work of a rogue FETO-affiliated group within it. According to TSK, 104 coup attempters have been killed during last night’s events, while civilian authorities report 90 others have died as a result of the uprising. The second number includes both policemen fighting the attempted coup and civilian casualties, with 42 deaths in Ankara alone.
A spokesman for TSK confirmed reports that its High Command, including Commander-in-Chief Hulusi Akar, had been taken hostage by officers attempting the coup last night. Akar is now on duty directing operations against the coup attempters, and most members of of the High Command are said to be accounted for.
Over 1300 TSK members have been arrested so far across Turkey. While many of these are relatively junior officers, reports indicate that numerous high-level officers, including former Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force, Akin Ozturk, and a number of military academy students, are also implicated. Turkey’s Interior Minister Efkan Ala has removed the Commander-in-Chief of the Coast Guard, Hakan Ustem, from his post earlier this morning. Arrests are expected to continue if not intensify in the coming hours and days, with some FETO members reportedly trying to flee the country or go into hiding.