International media on failed coup in Turkey - 4

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International media on failed coup in Turkey - 4

2016-08-10 10:38 BST
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Fact-Checking Turkey lists some reactions from international media on failed coup attempt in Turkey on 15 July 2016

On the night of 15 July 2016, FETO-linked soldiers launched a coup attempt, killed 246 people, 179 of which were civilians, and wounded thousands. They also bombed Turkey’s Grand National Assembly several times along with many other state buildings and tried to assasinate President Recep Tayyip Erdogan but missed him by minutes. The international media mostly supported the coup plotters and put the blame on President Erdogan for "bringing the coup on himself". Here is a list of the examples:

  1. Behlul Ozkan wrote in the Huffington Post that the abortive coup will “lead to a further erosion of the rule of law in Turkey”

  2. Ralph Peters said on Fox News that "People staging the coup are on our side [the side of the US]. They are pro-democracy and pro-secular constitution"

  3. The day after the failed Turkey coup attempt, Egypt's pro-army newspapers falsely reported that the coup in Turkey succeeded and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was overthrown

  4. Geopolitical Futures released an analysis according to which “It appears that the coup in #Turkey has been successful”

  5. Time columnist Ian Bremmer tweeted a cartoon that depicted Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a tank grabbing a rat, saying “GOT IT!”

  6. Amid the failed Turkey coup attempt, the Guardian published an article titled "How Erdogan inflamed tensions in Turkey" and changed the title later on but kept the tweet

  7. The New York Times tweeted an article on Turkey quoting a racist statement from the text: "We were the only secular, decent country in a bad region. Now, we are like one of those Arab states."

  8. An article published in the Financial Times claimed that "Turkey is losing its checks and balances" after the coup was foiled

  9. After the attempted coup was defeated, a columnist with the Huffington Post wrote in an article that “one of the main reasons behind the coup was to stop Erdogan from completely destroying Turkey’s remaining secular and democratic pillars, which were established by Turkey’s founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in 1923.”

  10. Al Jazeera News tweeted its article about the failed Turkey coup with a quote from a deputy of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) that categorized anti-coup protesters as "AKP mobs"

  11. Amid the failed coup attempt, the Daily Mirror reported fake news that “Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan 'FLEES COUNTRY' after military launches”

  12. Amid the failed coup attempt, Chatham House researcher Hayder Al-Khoei tweeted that the coup “would have a major positive impact on the region.”

  13. The Guardian released an offensive cartoon about the failed coup attempt that depicted Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as pig

  14. Amid the failed Turkey coup attempt, Sputnik International tweeted fake news that “Turkish #military announced #Turkey's gov't leadership detained”

  15. Der Spiegel’s cover after the 15 July coup attempt was defeated said "It was once a democracy - Dictator Erdogan and the helpless West"

  16. Vice News correspondent in a tweet called the anti-coup civilians who rescued the mainstream Turkish news channel CNN Turk from putschists a “mob”

  17. An article about the failed coup attempt published in the Newsweek Middle East read “Coups d’états are often leaps backwards away from democracy, but Erdogan also continues to take his country steps back with every day he is in power.”

  18. Can Dundar, a Turkish journalist accused of espionage in Turkey, wrote in the Guardian that “The Turkish military has, unfortunately, been the only powerful “guardian” of secularism”

  19. 9 days after the 15 July coup attempt was defeated, an article published in the Independent likened the Republic of Turkey to the Nazi Germany. Later on, the Independent removed both the article and the tweet “President Erdogan’s Turkey is modelled on the Third Reich”

  20. Time’s Europe cover on the failed coup attempt read "The country resists an attempted coup, but the worst could be yet to come"