ISTANBUL, Turkey (AFP) — Turkey on Saturday marked one year since the defeat of the failed coup bid with mass nationwide rallies and a stern warning by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to “chop off the heads” of traitors.
The authorities have declared July 15 an annual national holiday of “democracy and unity,” billing the foiling of the putsch as a historic victory of Turkish democracy.
In an intense program, Erdogan attended a special session of parliament in Ankara, spoke to a mass rally in Istanbul and was set to return to the capital for more events before dawn.
Speaking to a rally of hundreds of thousands by the bridge across the Bosphorus in Istanbul that was the center of much of the fighting, Erdogan warned that Turkey was mulling reintroducing capital punishment.
“First of all we will chop off the heads of those traitors,” Erdogan said, reaffirming he would sign any passed by parliament bill on resuming executions.
Any move to restore capital punishment — which Turkey abolished in 2004 — would effectively end Ankara’s European Union membership ambitions.
Erdogan also said the suspects being tried over the failed coup should wear uniform clothing like the notorious orange jumpsuits used at US military prison at Guantanamo Bay. READ MORE
