Istanbul // As Turkey reeled from the shock waves of a coup that in the end, went nowhere, the country's president lost no time in unleashing his wrath on those who had tried to bring him down.
They would, he said, "pay the heaviest price" for their treachery and his revenge was not merely swift, it was immediate.
By the time the country was waking up, more than 1,500 soldiers involved - or suspected of being involved - in the abortive coup had been arrested. By the time Turks were sitting down to dinner, that figure had more than doubled. Colonels and generals implicated in the rebellion were fired. But surrender was not enough. The president demanded humiliation too. And so Turkish television showed footage of a colonel and other soldiers on their knees, undergoing a search before being taken into custody. The Hurriyet newspaper quoted investigators who said some privates in the army were not even aware that they were part of a coup attempt. They thought they were simply on manoeuvres. `
It all seemed to be designed to show how little those behind the coup cared for their own men, how little they cared for Turkey.
"They have pointed the people's guns against the people. The president, whom 52 per cent of the people brought to power, is in charge. This government brought to power by the people is in charge," president Erdogan told a large and jubilant crowd shortly after he landed at Istanbul's Ataturk airport, his summer holiday cut short by tanks rolling on to the streets of Ankara.
Nor were the reprisals limited to the military. By Saturday afternoon, 2,745 judges were reportedly removed from duty, as well as five members of the High Council of Judges and Prosecutors, Turkey's highest judicial board.
Some on both sides of the uprising had already paid the "heaviest price" to which the president referred. Though it did not even last the night, the uprising left at least 250 dead and more than 1,000 injured.
The coup was not backed by the most senior ranks of the military. Gen Umit Dundar, temporarily named as the military chief, said the plotters were mainly officers from armoured units, the military police and the air force.
That they lacked any political support was clear when even Turkey's main opposition parties quickly condemned the attempted overthrow of the government.
The prime minister Binali Yildirim described the coup attempt as "a black mark on Turkish democracy" and said the perpetrators "will receive every punishment they deserve."
Signs of trouble emerged on Friday evening, when tanks took up positions on two of Istanbul's bridges and military jets flew across Ankara at low altitude. A message released by a faction of the army stating that they were in control and that the country was under martial law confirmed early suspicions of a coup. Over the following hours intermittent gunfire and explosions were heard in both cities, and the parliament in Ankara was damaged by an explosion. By Saturday morning, images of soldiers holding up their arms and surrendering on Istanbul's Galata Bridge seemed to confirm president Erdogan's confidence that his government remained in control.
The night's events left residents of both cities in deep shock.
"I thought we were being bombed last night," said Justin Cannon, an American app designer who lives close to Galata Bridge. "I went down to the basement of my apartment block for safety before discovering, through Twitter, that the sound had most likely been a sonic boom from an F16 fighter jet."
Sinem Dogan, an Istanbul resident in her early thirties, recalls how the city reverberated to the sound of calls to prayer, as muezzins echoed president Erdogan's request that his supporters take to the streets in defiance of the attempted coup. At that point, and as gunshots could be heard in Taksim Square, fears grew that Turkey had been plunged into civil war.
By Saturday, however, the city had a semblance of normality, although main streets in central Istanbul were noticeably emptier and some shops remained closed. However Ms Dogan remains frustrated. "Turkey is facing yet more chaos," she said, referring to the 14 terror attacks in the country in the past year. "This won't be good for the country in general."
It is still unclear who had conceived the attempted coup. The president blames Fethullah Gulen, a US-based cleric with a prominent following in Turkey. However, Mr Gulen rejected the accusation and condemned the attack "in the strongest terms".
There are also accusations from Erdogan detractors who say the president orchestrated the whole event.
"Many people feel it must be a scheme so that Erdogan can strengthen his power and gain more support through fear, " said one Turkish teacher who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals. However, The National was not presented with concrete evidence of such charges.
Either way, the coup attempt that did unfold never appeared to be galvanising mass support. All the major political parties denounced it as undemocratic and Turks contacted by The National were also opposed to it.
"I'm happy [the coup attempt] failed," said 23-year old Bursa resident Enes Tipi, calling those who attempted it "traitors" who conspired to "take Turkey from its people".
Ibrahim, a supporter of the ruling AK party, went a step further, denouncing the plotters as "terrorists", adding "You cannot bring democracy with guns."
In the early hours of Saturday morning, Mr Erdogan vowed that the coup plotters "will pay for what they did" under the full weight of Turkish law. Deputy prime minister Mehmet Muezzinoglu stated that the reintroduction of the death penalty was being considered.
As president, Mr Erdogan has taken increasingly autocratic measures in recent years, purging security institutions and the judiciary of opponents and locking up critical journalists. The belief now is that the government, and particularly Mr Erdogan, will deal more harshly than ever before with its critics. He started the day in anxiety, even fear. By the end he was describing the coup attempt as "a gift from God - a reason to cleanse our army."
foreign.desk@thentional.ae
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