A failed coup attempt that took place in Turkey on July 15, 2016 will be commemorated in Turkey for an entire week, the Office of the President has announced.
Presidential Spokesman İbrahim Kalın said commemorations would take place between July 10-16, during which time citizens who lost their lives in the coup attempt will be remembered. Kalın added that monuments would be built in Istanbul and Ankara in memory of the victims.
The military coup attempt on July 15 killed over 240 people and wounded more than a thousand others. Immediately after the putsch, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government along with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan pinned the blame on the Gülen movement.
Fethullah Gülen, who inspired the movement, strongly denied having any role in the failed coup and called for an international investigation into it, but President Erdoğan — calling the coup attempt “a gift from God” — and the government initiated a widespread purge aimed at cleansing sympathizers of the movement from within state institutions, dehumanizing its popular figures and putting them in custody.
According to a report by the state-run Anadolu news agency on May 28, 154,694 individuals have been detained and 50,136 have been jailed due to alleged Gülen links since the failed coup.
