Earlier on Tuesday, the Turkish Armed Forces confirmed in a statement that they had prior knowledge of a military faction’s coup plot late last week.
“The most probable scenario is that while the involved officers were acting on their own and not under [President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan directions, at the same time, the core inner circle of MIT [Secret Turkish Intelligence] knew all about it and allow it to happen in a 'controllable coup' self-inflicted by Erdogan and being the perfect pretext for him to proceed with his plan, that is total cleansing in all aspects of public life in Turkey, with massive incarcerations, massive dismisses of military officer, judges, academics, journalists, etc.,” Costas Mavrides said.
Almost 300 people were killed and more than 1,400 wounded during the failed coup which saw warplanes fire on key government installations and tanks rolling into Ankara and Istanbul.