YEREVAN. – After the military coup attempt, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s coup attempt has begun in Turkey.
Giro Manoyan, Head of the Political Affairs Bureau and the Armenian Cause Office of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) Dashnaktsutyun Party, noted the aforementioned at a press conference on Friday.
“With Erdoğan’s order, 60 thousand people have already been detained, about 20 thousand are arrested, [and] there is no room anymore in [Turkish] prisons,” said Manoyan. “In addition, the Turkish authorities have started confiscating the properties of businessmen.”
As per the ARF official, the present-day situation in Turkey will not bring about any improvement in regional matters.
Ruling Republican Party of Armenia MP Shirak Torosyan, for his part, stated that the Turkish authorities are attempting to restore their weight in the region.
“Turkish political scientists say if the coup attempt had succeeded, there would have been negative consequences on the entire region, including on Armenia,” noted Torosyan. “The destabilized situation of Turkey would have adversely affected Armenia as well.
“At any rate, Turkey is a challenge. And naturally, these realities are very closely examined in Armenia.”
Thousands of military servicemen attempted a coup in Turkey, from late night on July 15 to early morning on July 16, but it failed. The main confrontations took place in capital city Ankara and in Istanbul. A total of 246 people died as a result of the clashes.
Ankara accuses Turkish Islamic theologian and preacher Fethullah Gülen—who resides in the US since 1999, and his “Fethullah Gülen Terrorist Organization (FETÖ)”—of orchestrating the failed putsch.
