Turkey Commemorates 2nd Anniversary of Failed Coup

Turkey commemorated the second anniversary of a bloody coup attempt that rattled the nation and killed hundreds of people on July 15, 2016 amid still lingering questions regarding the how the coup took place and who were perpetrators behind it.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hailed the defeat of the coup attempt as protecting the dignity of the democracy, heaping lavish praise on the Turkish people and his supporters who came out in streets to thwart the ill-executed putsch.

“Our mighty nation, who ignored the guns directed at them and resisted the traitors, won a great and unprecedented victory with its courage on the night of July 15,” Erdogan said in a letter published by Turkish media.

But the pushback of the coup attempt did not herald a more democratic Turkey. It unleashed a massive purge unprecedented in Turkey’s history.

More than 178,000 people have either been suspended or dismissed by government decrees during the state of emergency imposed five days after the failed coup. More than 50,000 people have been jailed pending trial.