ANKARA:
Turkey on Sunday commemorated the
second anniversary of a bloody
coup attempt which was followed by a series of purges in the public sector and changes to boost President Recep Tayyip Erdogan´s powers.Two hundred and forty eight people were killed and over 2,000 were wounded after a rogue military faction tried to overthrow Erdogan on July 15, 2016. The attempted
coup was blamed by Ankara on US-based Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen, a former ally turned foe of Erdogan. Gulen denies the claims.In a series of events, Erdogan took part in a religious ceremony in an Ankara mosque before he hosted a lunch with martyrs´ families and those wounded at the presidential palace. July 15 is now a national holiday and Erdogan promised during the lunch that “we will not let it be forgotten and we will not forget it”. Erdogan will at 1800 GMT address citizens on the bridge across the Bosphorus in Istanbul — now renamed the July 15 Martyrs´ Bridge — which was the scene of bloody fighting between Erdogan´s supporters and renegade soldiers.
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