The attempted military take over of the majority Muslim country of Turkey may be over and the soldiers involved may have lost their bid to oust President Erdogan’s Islamist government, but the violence is continuing, shifted from violence perpetrated by the soldiers to violence perpetrated against them as Islamists now gather to retaliate.
As the Daily Mail reports,
Defiant Turkish civilians reclaimed the country from their own military after helping to end a coup by the army to overthrow President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who called on people to remain on the streets today over fears over a fresh uprising.
Ordinary Turks confronted rifle-wielding soldiers, climbed atop tanks and laid in front of military vehicles in an effort to take back control of the country, ignoring a curfew issued by coup plotters designed to allow the army to bring down the government unopposed.
President Erdogan called on people to take to the streets, leading to reports of groups of soldiers surrendering at several key locations in Ankara and Istanbul, including Bosphorus Bridge, where 100 rebels laid down their arms and submitted themselves to advancing civilians and police officers.
There were unconfirmed reports of one soldier being beheaded by a mob of civilians on the bridge after a video surfaced online showing a crowd launching an attack on the downed man. However in the video the man is still alive and shows no beheading, though it is unknown if this happened after the footage ended.
Many photos have come to light showing soldiers being attacked and berated by Erdogan’s Islamist citizenry…
