Some 2839 Turkish Armed Forces officers have been arrested as of Saturday evening, less than 24 hours after an attempted coup d'etat in Turkey was thwarted, officials say. The arrested military include two generals, but no names are given. Another 2745 Turkish judges have been dismissed in the wake of the coup attempt, according to Anadolu Agency. As many as 161 civilians have been killed, alongside 104 suspected coup plotters. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has indirectly pointed a finger at Fethullah Gülen, the US-based Muslim cleric he has long been accusing of running a parallel state aimed to topple him. Gülen has denied the allegations, condemning the coup "in the strongest form." He has also suggested Erdogan could have possiby staged the coup to find a reason for further accusations against him and his movement. Thousands of supporters of Erdogan and ruling AKP party's government were in the center of Ankara, Turkey's capital, heeding calls from Prime Minister Binali Yildirim to stay on the streets in support of unity and democracy. Yildirim, who was to appear before the crowd but failed, said the country was again fully under government control. In his words, organizers were officers from the gendarmerie and land forces. He also praised the multitude of Turks who took to the streets in defense of democracy and peace hours after the coup attempt was made. A number of world leaders and the top officials of the EU and NATO earlier declared their support for the democratically elected government and president. However, some of the participants in the coup are still at large, with part of the plotters having fled to Greece and others having captured a frigate and taken the country's navy and air force heads hostage.
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