Turkey has arrested a record 6,000 people after a failed coup, with President Erdogan vowing to purge state bodies of the “virus” that caused the revolt. The President’s top military aide Col Ali Yazici is among those now in custody.
The overall death toll for the weekend violence has risen to 290, the foreign ministry said. More than 100 of those were participating in the coup. Security forces are reported to have met resistance from some coup plotters who were being arrested, reports the BBC.
Warning shots were fired at Istanbul’s second largest airport, and also at a military base in central Konya province, unnamed officials said.
“We will continue to cleanse the virus from all state institutions, because this virus has spread. Unfortunately like a cancer, this virus has enveloped the state,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan told mourners at a funeral in Istanbul for victims of the coup.
Mr Erdogan broke down in tears while speaking at the funeral of a close political ally, his campaign manager Erol Olcak, and his teenage son. He said he would take the country forward in “unity and solidarity”.
The president repeated an accusation that cleric Fethullah Gulen was behind the plot, and called for him to be extradited from the US. Mr Gulen strongly denies any involvement.
Meantime, Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari has joined world leaders in condemning the abortive coup attempt in Turkey . Reacting to the tragic events in Ankara, Istanbul and other centres, President Buhari says he is “deeply saddened by reports of a violent attempt to dismantle constitutional authority and disrupt the democratically elected government of Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey.”
“The removal of a democratic government by force is no longer acceptable. Violence can never solve any problem but only complicates them and sets back the progress of democratic societies.”
The President also notes that President Erdogan is one of Nigeria’s close international partners and sincere supporters in its current war against terrorism, adding that all should resist the “destabilization of democratic countries through coups d’état in the 21st century.”
According to the President, “democracy provides peaceful options of changing governments through the ballot box. The ballot box doesn’t require violence to remove any government perceived to have lost its popularity and public support. Despite its limitations, democracy is still better and more durable than a violent change of government.”
The President praises the courage and immediate response of ordinary citizens who in face of guns and tanks defied the rebel soldiers and forced them to abandon their mad quest for power.
President Buhari calls on the President of Turkey to pursue reconciliation and offers Nigeria’s support to the government and people of Turkey in their hour of trial.
