A Turkish army faction backed by tanks and fighter jets waged a coup attempt against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday.
Officials insisted the attempted coup was falling apart.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan returned to Istanbul airport during the early hours of Saturday, saying the hotel he was staying at on Turkey’s Aegean coast was bombed after he left.
Erdogan appointed General Umit Dundar, commander of the First Army, as acting chief of staff after General Hulusi Akar was captured and taken hostage.
Akar was later rescued, the private TV station CNN-Turk reported.
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, who has spoken on media via telephone throughout the night, is believed to be in Ankara.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday called for a quick and peaceful return to civilian rule in Turkey following a coup attempt by the military.
EU chiefs Donald Tusk and Jean-Claude Juncker on Saturday backed Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government and urged a “swift return” to normal after a coup attempt.
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg backed key ally Turkey’s “democratic institutions” Saturday after parts of the military launched a coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
US President Barack Obama on Friday urged all parties in Turkey to back the “democratically-elected” government, a clear denunciation of troops who launched a coup that has rocked the country.Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton expressed “great concern” Friday at the coup attempt in Turkey, urging calm in the key US ally.
Government-backed jets have downed pro-coup aircraft and bombed tanks surrounding the presidential palace in the capital Ankara.
Dozens of soldiers backing the coup surrendered on the Bosphorus bridge in Istanbul that they had held throughout the night, holding their hands above their heads as they were detained
A group calling itself the “Council for Peace in the Homeland” declared martial law and a curfew in a statement, saying it had launched the coup “to ensure and restore constitutional order, democracy, human rights and freedoms and let the supremacy of the law in the country prevail…”
No named military officer claimed responsibility for the actions.
Erdogan said during the night he did not know whereabouts of the army chief of staff, General Hulusi Akar, and appointed the commander of the First Army, General Umit Dundar in his place temporarily.
Erdogan put the blame the coup on supporters of his arch-foe, US-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, whose Hizmet movement and its powerful presence in Turkish society, including the media, police and judiciary.
