Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey has many enemies expecting the country’s “death”, when addressed the nation at a meeting commemorating the first anniversary of an attempted military coup.
On Saturday and Sunday, commemorative events for the first anniversary of failed coup take place across Turkey, bringing together hundreds of thousands of people in the marches and processions. A large-scale march in Ankara ended in the early hours of Sunday with Erdogan’s address near the parliament’s building which was bombed in the coup.
“So many enemies are waiting for Turkey’s death. If I enumerate, it will result in a major international crisis,” Erdogan said.
The Turkish leader recalled a nation-wide victory in July 2016 when “criminal aims of traitors who nursed them during 40 years collapsed in 20 hours.”
On July 15, 2016, a military coup attempt took place in Turkey. Over 240 people were killed and an estimated 2,000 were wounded in its undertakings, which was suppressed the following day. Over 40,000 Turkish citizens were arrested and about 145,000 people, many among them civil servants, security personnel and academics, were fired from their positions amid ongoing investigations.