Prime minister: Turkish military launches attempted coup

– In Marmaris, western Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan calls on the population to oppose the coup, speaking to the nation via a cell phone link broadcast by television. “If you dare, come back to your country”, Erdogan said Saturday in reference to Gulen, not the entire Keystone State.

The Turkish authorities have imposed a security lockdown and cut power to the Incirlik air base in the south of the country.

A lengthy halt also could constrain the operations of USA drones, now flying out of Incirlik, to gather intelligence and strike Islamic State leaders in Raqqa and militants based there who plot and coordinate extremist attacks in Western Europe, White said.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused Fethullah Gulen, who now lives in Pennsylvania, of being behind the coup and demanded the US hand him over, though the exiled cleric has denied any involvement.

European leaders greeted the defeat of Turkey’s coup on Saturday with relief as it averts chaos and keeps alive a deal that has helped to stem the migration crisis threatening the continent.

“I don’t believe that the world believes the accusations made by President Erdogan”, Gulen said in an interview at his residence on Saturday with a small group of journalists.

In public appearances since returning to Istanbul, Erdogan has blamed the attempted putsch on followers of Pennsylvania-based opposition figure Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish preacher with a large following.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim described the coup attempt as a “black stain on Turkish democracy”, with 265 people killed and 1440 wounded.

In Washington, US President Barack Obama urged all parties in Turkey to support the “democratically elected government”.

More than 1,500 military personnel were arrested across the country, said a senior official who was not authorized to speak to the media. The Turkish president has returned and he addressed the people from Istanbul airport.

In contrast, the USA has struggled with Erdogan’s AKP Party and its moderate Islamist policies, including his diplomatic spat with Israel and his outreach to Islamist parties like the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas.

Turkey had not yet issued a formal extradition request, he added.

Gulen’s Hizmet (Service) movement supported Erdogan’s mildly Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) in its rise to power at the start of last decade. Secretary of State John Kerry expressed concerned for Americans there. “It’s no secret that there are some trends within Turkey that I have been troubled with”, Obama said in April. Some strafed the headquarters of Turkish intelligence and parliament in the capital, Ankara, and others seized a major bridge in Istanbul.

After airborne shelling near the presidential complex during “Parallel State/Gulenist Terrorist Organization ” s coup attempt in Ankara, Turkey on July 16, 2016.

The Federal Aviation Administration ban includes commercial and private planes operating into or out of Turkey, as well as flights to the U.S.by non-U.S. carriers via third countries.