Turkey Appoints Acting Military Chief: Official
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Turkey appointed the head of its First Army, a group of divisions within its land forces, as acting chief of military staff on Saturday while the whereabouts of the head of the armed forces was unknown, a senior Turkish official told Reuters.
Umit Dundar was appointed after the head of the military could not be accounted for in the chaos of an attempted coup by rebels in the armed forces. Local media reports said earlier the chief of staff had been taken hostage.
An attempted Turkish military coup appeared to crumble in the early hours of Saturday after crowds answered Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan's call to take to the streets to support him.
Erdogan, who had been holidaying on the southwest coast when the coup was launched by a faction in the armed forces, flew into Istanbul before dawn on Saturday and was shown on TV appearing among a crowd of supporters outside Ataturk Airport.
