Turkish forces detain 11 men accused of plan to kidnap Erdogan

Turkish forces have detained 11 commandos who were on the run after their alleged involvement in an attempt to kidnap the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, during last month’s attempted coup.

The 11 soldiers are believed to be part of a group that raided a hotel in the south-western beach town of Marmaris where Mr Erdogan was on holiday with his family on the night of July 15th. The president was tipped off about the raid and escaped before the commandos arrived.

On Sunday, Turkish authorities passed a third state of emergency decree that encompassed the dismissal of almost 1,400 military personnel and placed government ministers in the top military council, thereby bringing the army under closer government control.

Jeering protesters

The state-run Anadolu news agency reported that the rogue commandos were caught in the Ula district of Mugla province. According to reports, the fugitive soldiers were spotted by villagers out on a boar hunt, who notified the authorities. Turkish gendarmerie special forces then launched a massive manhunt supported by helicopters and drones, capturing nine of the commandos on Sunday night, and two more on Monday morning. The fugitives clashed with the forces, but there were no casualties reported.

Dozens of jeering protesters gathered in front of the gendarmerie outpost where the captured soldiers were held before being transferred to a nearby police station. Popular protest and an overall lack of support for the coup attempt are cited as the main reasons that it failed. Nightly government-organised “democracy wakes” have taken place since the coup attempt, attracting tens of thousands of people.

Opposition parties, including the pro-Kurdish Democratic Peoples’ party (HDP), have also organised demonstrations.

Dismissed

A total of 37 commandos are said to have been implicated in the attempt to seize Mr Erdogan from his hotel, and 25 have been caught in earlier raids, according to Turkish media reports.

More than 265 people were killed and 1,000 injured during the attempted putsch. Since then, over 60,000 soldiers, police officers, judges, prosecutors, teachers and other civil servants have been dismissed from their jobs or arrested over suspected links to the US-based cleric Fethullah Gülen, who is accused by the Turkish government of orchestrating the coup.

Turkey has asked the US to extradite Mr Gülen, who lives in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania. He has denied the charges against him.

Human rights groups and several western governments have expressed their concern over the ongoing purges, and have urged Turkey to remain within the framework of international law.

– Guardian service