Turkey is observing the first anniversary of a failed coup attempt on July 15, 2016 that killed 249 people and wounded more than a thousand others.
During a special session in the Turkish Parliament, which was bombed by the putschists on the night of the coup attempt, Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım, Republican People’s Party (CHP) Chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli are going to deliver speeches.
A National Unity March has been organized in Ankara and İstanbul. Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan is expected to attend both events.
The Justice and Development Party (AKP) government along with Erdoğan accuse the faith-based Gülen movement of orchestrating the coup attempt.
Fethullah Gülen, who inspired the movement, strongly denied having any role in the failed coup and called for an international investigation into it, but President Erdoğan — calling the coup attempt “a gift from God” — and the government initiated a widespread purge aimed at cleansing sympathizers of the movement from within state institutions, dehumanizing its popular figures and putting participants of the Gülen movement in jails.
Turkey’s Justice Ministry has announced that 50,510 people have been arrested and 169,013 have been the subject of legal proceedings on coup charges since a failed coup in Turkey on July 15, 2016.
According to data released by the Justice Ministry on Thursday, there are outstanding detention warrants for 8,087 individuals, 152 of whom are military officers, 392 are police officers and three are governors.
Among the arrestees are 169 generals, 7,089 colonels and 24 governors.
A total of 2,431 members of the Turkish judiciary are also among those arrested in the aftermath of the July 15 coup attempt, while 265 of them are at large.
More than 23,427 academics have been affected by a state of emergency (OHAL) that was declared following the failed coup attempt, according to a BBC Turkish report.
Around 160 media outlets were closed down and 2,500 journalists or media workers were sacked from their jobs in Turkey in the aftermath of the coup.
The AKP government has seized about 1,000 companies with a total value of TL 41 billion since the failed coup attempt.
The authorities have declared July 15 an annual national holiday of “democracy and unity,” billing the failure of the 2016 attempted coup as a historic victory for Turkish democracy. / AFP PHOTO / OZAN KOSE
People have come from far and wide to this sleepy Anatolian village in central Turkey to recite prayers, take selfies or just think quietly. The purpose of their visit is simple — to pay their respects at the grave of Sergeant Omer Halisdemir, probably the most celebrated victim of the July 15 coup aimed at ousting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. / AFP PHOTO / OZAN KOSE