Erdogan stages mass rally in show of strength after coup attempt

The “Democracy and Martyrs’ Rally” at the Yenikapi parade ground, built into the sea on the southern edge of Istanbul’s peninsula, marks the climax of three weeks of nightly demonstrations by Erdogan’s supporters, many wrapped in the red Turkish flag, in squares around the country.

Banners read “You are a gift from God, Erdogan” or “Order us to die and we will do it”. But it was also the first time in decades that major opposition parties joined a rally in support of the government in the nation of almost 80 million.

“We’re here to show that theses flags won’t come down, the call to prayer won’t be silenced, and our country won’t be divided,” said Haci Mehmet Haliloglu, 46, a civil servant who traveled from the Black Sea town of Ordu for the rally.

“This is something way beyond politics, this is either our freedom or death,” he said, a large Turkish flag over his shoulder and a matching baseball cap on his head.

The parade ground, built to hold at least a million people, was overflowing, with access roads clogged by crowds. The events were broadcast live on public screens at demonstrations across Turkey’s 81 provinces.

Erdogan has vowed to rid Turkey of the network of U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, whose followers in the security forces, judiciary and civil service he accuses of orchestrating the attempted power grab and of plotting to overthrow the state.

Gulen – an ally of Erdogan in the early years after his Islamist-rooted AK Party took power in 2002 – denies the charges and has denounced the coup, which came at a critical time for a NATO “frontline” state facing Islamist militant attacks from across the border in Syria and an insurgency by Kurdish rebels.

Since the coup, Turkish authorities have suspended, detained or placed under investigation tens of thousands of people, including soldiers, police, judges, journalists, medics and civil servants, prompting concern among Western allies that Erdogan is using the events to tighten his grip on power.

“The triumph is democracy’s, the squares are the people’s,” said flyers put through doors overnight advertising free bus, ferry and subway transport to Sunday’s rally. The slogan adorns banners hung from bridges and buildings across the country.

Erdogan, a polarizing figure seen by opponents as intolerant of dissent, has invited the heads of the secularist and nationalist main opposition parties to address the crowds in a display of national unity in defiance of Western criticism.

“The only way to eliminate coups is to revive the founding values of the Republic. These values that make our unity should be spoken out loud at Yenikapi,” said Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of the secularist opposition CHP, in a tweet ahead of the rally.

Turkey’s top Muslim cleric and chief rabbi also attended. But the pro-Kurdish HDP, the third-largest party in parliament, was not invited due to its alleged links to Kurdish militants, prompting anger on social media from its supporters.

The brutality of July 15, in which more than 230 people were killed as rogue soldiers commandeered fighter jets, helicopters and tanks, shocked a nation that last saw a violent military power grab in 1980. Even Erdogan’s opponents saw his continued leadership as preferable to a successful coup renewing the cycle of military interventions that dogged Turkey in the second half of the 20th century.

Secularists and nationalists who oppose Erdogan also loathe Gulen’s followers, used by Erdogan in years past to undermine the power of secularist generals suspicious of his ruling AK Party’s Islamist ideals. They have so far been limited in their criticism of purges of alleged Gulenists, though they have raised questions about the pace and scale of the detentions.

“Erdogan has been brutal and unfair to us in the past, but I believe he has now understood the real importance of the republic’s values,” said Ilhan Girit, 44, a musician and CHP supporter, carrying a flag of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of the modern secular republic.

A convoy of nationalists on motorbikes passed as he spoke. Such solidarity may not last. There are already opposition concerns that the restructuring of the military lacks parliamentary oversight and is going too far, with thousands of soldiers discharged, including around 40 percent of generals.