Turkey wrote story of heroism on July 15: Erdogan aide

By Omer Faruk Cebeci

KOCAELI, Turkey (AA) - The public resistance against the July 15 defeated coup in 2016 was one of the stages of Turkey’s history on which the nation would be proud of, Turkish presidential spokesman said on Thursday.

“During the night of July 15 defeated coup, we have seen one of the most concrete examples of the integration of state and nation,” Ibrahim Kalin told a global symposium in northwestern Turkish province of Kocaeli.

The Kartepe Summit titled 'International Symposium on July 15 and Coups D'etat - Global Impacts, Media and Democracy' is hosted by Kocaeli Metropolitan Municipality as Anadolu Agency is the global communication partner of the summit.

The coup attempt on July 15, 2016 was defeated by a comprehensive resistance by Turkish people, who took to the streets following a call from President Recep Tayip Erdogan.

A total of 250 people were martyred and over 2,200 others injured on the night of the deadly coup, which was orchestrated by the Fetullah Terrroist Organization (FETO) and its U.S.-based leader Fetullah Gulen.

“The state and nation wrote a story of heroism against these traitors and against the attempts to invade the Republic of Turkey,” Kalin said.

He noted that Turkey had experienced several coups in its modern history, including the military coups in 1960 and 1980.

“But, the July 15 coup attempt has a very different place. Why? It's not just because the nation stopped this coup. It was one of the stages of our history that we would be proud of. The night of July 15 was the night when citizens of the Republic of Turkey all stood up as a nation,” he added.

Kalin also criticized the Western countries’ stance following the defeated coup in Turkey. He said that all countries, who said they were against the coup and support democracy, should extradite FETO suspects to Turkey in line with the bilateral extradition treaties.