In the world. The large important and critically strategically important nation of turkey undergoing what appears to be an attempted coup, an inprocess coup, and a fastmoving story that has a lot of different elements. Its 4 00 a. M. Local time in turkey right now, theyre seven hours ahead of the american east coast. At 4 00 a. M. Local time, that means the sun is due to rise there in about an hour or so. We dont know if dawn and daylight will bring clarity or resolution. Its starting to feel like it will not, but it has been a tumultuous and shocking night in turkey. Right now, were about six hours into what appears to be an attempted coup by a faction of the Turkish Military. In very short order in the middle of the night, what happened tonight, which was not true at the very start of this story, was that at least tens of thousands of turkish people have turned out into the streets. And at least in istanbul, turkeys largest city, these crowds that have turned out into the streets, waving turkish flags, fronting and stopping military vehicles in the streets, those crowds in istanbul, appear to have at least temporarily stopped any efforts by some sub set of the military to seize the government. That said, istanbul is not all of turkey. The capital is ankara, which is more than 200 miles away. The situation on the streets of ankara may not be as easy to describe as whats going on in istanbul. This coup attempt, if in fact, that is whats going on, this coup attempt may have taken a very different course in the Nations Capital city than it took in its largest city of istanbul, where weve had so many fascinating live shots, where weve seen people flood into the streets. Where we saw at one point what appeared to be Istanbul Police officers arresting turkish soldiers. Police taking soldiers into custody. This is all late breaking, its all happening live. Its a very fastmoving situation. This may all yet change over the course of this hour and the course of this evening, but it started tonight essentially as a surprise. There were not public indications that this coup was in the works. It was about 10 00 p. M. Local time reports started to surface that soldiers had forced the shutdown of two bridges over the boss por us in istanbul, bridges literally between tu we got these first confusing, alarmed reports that for some reason, soldiers in military vehicles were shutting down those bridges. At the same time, reports also started to circulate that military fighter jets were flying low over the capital city of ankara, very low. Again, istanbul and ankara, over 200 miles apart, istanbul is three times the size of ankara, about 14 million people, a huge tourist capital, a huge airport, a huge economic and Cultural Center for turkey and the world. Ankara is the National Capital, its much smaller. But we got the initial reports of bridges being shut down and the scary flyby of the f16s in ankara and not long after, the president phoned in and said the military was acting without orders, said it was undemocratic. Importantly, he said the government remained in complete control of the country. But while that was happening, the group within the military, that was apparently staging the coup, they took over the tv station called trt and delivered a statement that was read on state tv. The anchor later said she read it at gunpoint. The statement declared a curfew, it told people to stay home, it declared marshall law, and in the statement, the mute nears in the military claimed they had fully seized control of the country and they were in control of the government now. They said they had taken over the country because the secular rule of law was being threatened. So they had taken over and turkey would now be run by what they call a peace council. Now, at that point, wed heard from the Prime Minister but not from the president. Reports circulated that he was in the country, not abroad, but on vacation, in a different part of turkey at a report on the black sea. And then in one of the stranger moments of this story, president erdogan called into cnn turk and made a statement to the nation, not on camera exactly, or sort of on camera but once removed. He made a statement from his iphone, using face time, which the tv station shot and broadcast that to the nation. The reporter held her phone in her hand, as he used his phone to call her on face time and address the country that way. Speaking from an undisclosed location. He was Prime Minister from 2002 to 2014. Then he was elected president , which is supposed to be a more ceremonial, less powerful position, but ala putin, hes used the new job title to stay in firm and increasing control of the turkish government. That said, he is technically the democratically elected leader of turkey and when he appeared to national tv via iphone, he said the coup would be stopped and those who orchestrated the coup would pay a heavy price. He told the turkish people that they should stop the coup, that they should take to the streets. Quote, there is no power higher than the power of the people. He told people to go into public squares, importantly, to go to the airports, to show support for the government in the streets, to essentially stop the coup, and it happened. Well after midnight into streets that were already filling with tanks and armored personnel carriers, the people of turkey did take to the streets, thousands and thousands of people flooded into the streets in istanbul, lots of people carrying the turkish flag in a show of nationalism. People did gather all over the country, all over istanbul, on boss forus bridge, at the ataturk airport, the site of that terrible terrorist attack last month. Now, in ankara, again, it may be a different story. There are reports that the Turkish Military used tanks and that those tanks may have opened fire near the Turkish Parliament building. There have been reports of explosions heard in ankara. There have been reports that bombs may have been dropped by warplanes on ankara. The state department has issued an Emergency Alert for all americans in turkey. Theyre asking u. S. Citizens to stay vigilant, to stay indoors and to shelter in place. Airports in turkey are closed. That said, the New York Times has reported in the last few minutes that president erdogan has emerged at istanbuls ataturk airport. The a. P. Is reporting that large crowds have greeted him as hes emerged from a vehicle at ataturk airport in istanbul. In terms of the american stake and turkey strategic position here, turkey is a u. S. Ally, a complicated one, but an ally. Turkey is also a Member Nation of nato. Today they called for full respect of turkeys Democratic Institutions. Just moments ago ahead of his arrival, president erdogan tweeted in english, again telling people to come to city squares, to airports, saying the only power he recognizes is the power of the people. This attempted coup appears, at least appears, to still be under way. The president reportedly has now surfaced at the main airport in istanbul. We have much less clarity of whats going on in the National Capital of ankara. Joining us now from bullent aleriesa, the founding director of the turkey project. Thank you for talking with us tonight. Thank you. Great timing for research on ankara. Seriously. Let me just ask you, in terms of what i just explained there, did i say anything that struck you as wrong or seems to have been overtaken by events . No, i think you did a very good summary of the very confusing events to turks, as well as to those who are watching the events here. But it looks like the coup attempt is faltering. But like you said, its still not over. What were able to broadcast is a live shot of ataturk airport, the main airport in istanbul, which is just thronged with what appears to be a mostly celebratory crowd as there are reports that president erdogan has landed there. Can you tell us if the situation in ankara is very different . We had reports of air strikes and a bombing of the Parliament Building. At least one air strike by part of the air force. It might have been a helicopter. It might have been a fighter jet, on the Parliament Building. The headquarters of the military is still under the control of the coup perpetrators, and there are stories that they fired from inside the building out. And there are pretty much confirmed stories of confrontations between the military and the police. Which unlike the ones in istanbul, where you reported that members of the military have been detained by the police, which is loyal to the government. In this case, there are stories that the military actually raided the special forces component of the police and killed a number of policemen. You know, one thing that needs to be on the line, rachel, is that ankara is the capital, but erdogan was mayor of istanbul for a number of years. He was born in istanbul. He loves the city, and the city loves him back. So its no surprise that the throngs that he called on to rise up, did indeed rise up and materialize at the airport. And facilitate his return. But, i think its the situation in ankara needs to be stabilized. Theres stories that its one other major city, bursa, where there has been trouble. And as the dawn breaks, which is in a couple of hours from now, turkey will still be in a situation in which the coup attempt is not being completely pacified, and the system is in a state of shock at what was thought to be unthinkable, theres been no coup attempt in turkey for 20 years by the military. It has gone through one of these again, and whether its successful or as seems more likely, it fails, it is unwelcome to this country. And im going to ask you to hold on for a moment from ankara. Weve just fed in the tape of president erdogan addressing his supporters as he landed at ataturk airport. We have that tape of, this is just moments ago, and we have it translated into english. Stay with us. Lets roll that tape. Weve got that tape coming up in just a moment, i should tell you. What you are looking at here in terms of these live shots here is ataturk airport where president erdogan has just landed. Watch. Translator i want to, first of all, say this. A group of a group from the military forces and they belong to this noninfrastructustructu made an attempt to attack the integrity of our country. And there is they have started this these clashes in some of the countries some of the cities of turkey. And this attempt at uprising will get its answer from the law and they will be given an answer by the judicial system and no matter where they belong to, they should know that in this count country, the law is the main thing, and as the president of this country, the Political Party that i helped develop, and the people of this nation, should go out, and the members ever the ak party also, the people who support ak party, should go out on the streets, on the arenas. They should be out on the street, and this is the best answer to these people who are who have attempted this uprising. And some some of them are being arrested, actually, turkey wont be frightened amid this kind of uprising, and turkey cannot be governed from pennsylvania. 45 million, who can vote in turkey will form the future of this country, and will govern this country. Our Prime Minister also spoke before and said that these tanks, these military equipment, belong to this country, and we wont be afraid of these tanks. I want them to know that military this Minority Group in the military will pay for what they did and we will be standing up straight and strong and i want our nationals also to be strong, to stand up straight, i want them to go to the airports, to the arenas. I want to yes, he is. I dont know. Hes at the airport. Ataturk airport, yes. I dont i cant tell if it it says last minute. That was president erdogan speaking a moment ago. You heard the translator there, both translating his remarks and talking at the end there. That was just moments ago. Now hes about to make another statement, obviously a more formal statement here, and i think we are going to control room, are we going to be able to have simultaneous translation of this . All right, lets just go to this while its happening in real time. Translator getting ready to make a statement live. This is live. This is the president of turkey, mr. Erdogan, again, at the airport in istanbul, at ataturk airport, and theyre asking everyone to be quiet, hes getting ready to make another statement. Can you tell us about the current situation, dear friends. I want to shes translating, yes. Translator there was an attempted coup detat i cant hear it. Translator these clashes, the uprising that was going on, we realized that there was a group of minority in the Turkish Military, and they are trying to harm the unity, solidarity and integrity of our country. They were not able to accept the integrity of this country. And these people, we found out, that they belong to the parallel formation, and they have developing for the last 40 years, and they were able to enter into the Turkish Military and they were hiding in the military, and they this attempt, this coup detat is an uprising. And i can say this very clearly, that they are going to pay for this in the harshest way. And we have been this government has been elected with the words of the turkish citizens, and the commander in chi chief, as the president of this country, and they werent able to accept this. No matter how hard they try, i want them to know that we will keep working on our path of unity and solidarity, and they wont deter us from our way of governing this country. And i could say that this is actually this attempted uprising is a gift from god to us because this will help us clean our military from the members of this gang, beginning of august, there will be this military meetings and its very meaningful that they timed this upsizing right before these meetings, and they were aware of what will happen at those meetings. They were afraid of some decisions that will be taken at those meetings. And even if people do not agree, turkey now is not the old turkey, this is the new turkey, and thats why we are taking some important steps right now. We are at the yish kir airport and just a couple of days, less than a week ago, this was an attack to this airport and today there is another attempt of an uprising. And f16 airplanes are flying over the istanbul airport. Why are these f16 airplanes flying over the istanbul airport . Why did we purchase these f16 airplanes . We purchased them so that they protect our country from the enemies. But these people who have captured these f16s, are flying over istanbul airport and stopping the regular passenger planes to land in the istanbul airport, and they are threatening even the president of this country. I was in marmaris before i arrived here and right after i left, i had heard that right after i left marmaris, they bombed where we were. I think they are still talking about it at marmaris. They didnt think that we would be coming over to istanbul. This is what they are doing. They are trying to harm the institutions of this country, the presidency. They took my actually, they have taken my secretary. They have taken him. What will they do . What is what are they trying to do . They have also taken hostage a commander in chief. I dont know what his situation is, if hes safe now. I want to tell this to all the commanders, the highlevel people of the military, i believe that you are you favor the values of this country, but there are some people within the military maybe up until this time you thought they had the same values as you do, but you should know that they were getting their directio directions, they were being told what to do from pennsylvania. They werent actually respecting the chain of command should we cut away . Within the military. I want to talk to each member of the military. You are our sons. You are as these people, such an attempt trying to just point a gun to your families, to members of your families, is not acceptab acceptable. You have been given these weapons by this nation. And if you point your guns to the nation, that wont be forgiven. Many people the turkish president erdogan speaking tonight in istanbul for the first several hours of this, what appears to be an attempted coup. He was in transit. He had spoken to the nation only by face time from his iphone. Hes now given two oncamera statements just moments apart. Were joined by dexter fillkins of the new york magazine, who has lived in istanbul and been reporting on turkey for years. What strikes you about what we just heard from him . Well, it looks like the coup is probably going to the attempted coup is probably going to fail. Hes already speaking about it in the past tense. As a gift from god. Well, look, this is a longtime coming, this attempt by the military. Theres a lot of ironies now, erdogan can now portray himself az force for democracy, but he has been dismantling everything Democratic Institution for the past decade. Hes put reporters in prison, his opponents in prison, most of the general staff of the military in prison. Hes rapidly been accumulating power to the point where hes almost now unchallenged. I think the danger now is if he survives this coup attempt, that remains to be scene. Its hard to imagine that hes going to leave power any time soon. He was talking about the perpetrators of the coup, he said some of them have already been arrested. He said, they will pay for what they did. At one point, he said the ringleader who plotted all of this will pay the price in front of the nation. He said it was a gift from god because hell be able to cleanse these elements from the military now. He drew a direct line to what happened tonight to what happened at ataturk airport last month, which was an isisinspired attack. You can see him, hes like hu huey long, hes a populist. He just gathers the people arou around phim. But his model is putin. Thats the fear and thats the irony. Because the Turkish Military is not a Democratic Institution itself, and theyre claiming to be acting to save turkish democracy. Theres a lot of ironies here. In terms of the split of the military, we keep hearing its a faction of the military that did this. What do we know about that . Is this a division that you could recognize ahead of time and outside of that institution and how how big a group this