A night of explosions, gunfire and tanks rolled along the streets of Istanbul on Friday in an attempted coup, however President Recep Tayyip Erdogan took charge and issued an announcement stating that the government had quashed the exertion and was in charge.
Greece is closely monitoring the situation in the neighboring country, with Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos rushing early on Friday to the presidential mansion to be informed of the situation by Greece’s defense service and the National Intelligence Service.
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras was briefed on the situation in Turkey by the National Intelligence Service on Friday night.
Greece supports democracy
Greek spokesperson Olga Gerovasili said that Athens backs the “democratically elected government” of Turkey. She said that Tsipras will call Erdogan and Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim on Saturday.
Tsipras took to Twitter with a statement that “the government and people of Greece are following the ongoing situation in Turkey standing for democracy and constitutional order.”
Meetings in Greece
There was a long meeting at the Citizens Protection Ministry between Citizens Protection Minister Nikos Toskas with the head of the Greek Police Force Constantinos Tsouvalas. Sources state that there will be an increase in protection of the Evros borders with Turkey and extra caution concerning traffic from Turkey as the situation progresses.
Reports from Turkey so far state that 60 people had been killed and a thousand injured in the attempted coup, whereas gunfire continued even after Erdogan had given assurances that the situation was under control.
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