Turkey’s Attempted Coup Outcome of Ankara’s Support for Terrorism: Iranian MP

Speaking to the Tasnim News Agency, Seyed Hossein Naqavi Hosseini, a member of the Iranian parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, decried the military coup in Turkey and said, “The Islamic Republic strongly condemns any kind of coup or act of terrorism or interference in other countries’ internal affairs.”

However, he said, Turkey is paying the cost of its support for terrorism, adding that a government that has openly provided financial and arms support for terrorist groups in Syria, now has to see how its interference backfires.  

The Iranian parliamentarian further called on Turkish officials to respect to will of other countries’ people, particularly that of Syrians, and let them determine their own destiny.

A coup, launched by a faction in Turkey’s armed forces, appeared to crumble in the early hours of Saturday after crowds answered 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, flew into Istanbul before dawn on Saturday and was shown on TV appearing among a crowd of supporters outside Ataturk Airport.

The uprising was an “act of treason”, and those responsible would pay a heavy price, he later told reporters at a hastily arranged news conference. Arrests of officers were under way, and it would go higher up the ranks, culminating in the cleansing of the military, he said.

The coup began with warplanes and helicopters roaring over Ankara and troops moving in to seal off the bridges over the Bosphorus Strait that links Europe and Asia in Istanbul.

Authorities had shut the strait to tanker traffic. A helicopter open fire in Ankara. Anadolu said military helicopters had fired on the headquarters of the intelligence agency.

Airports were shut and access to internet social media sites was cut off in the first hours of the coup attempt.