Turkish PM Yıldırım names July 15 coup attempt as ‘project’ he did not like


Date posted: July 6, 2018

In remarks that fueled suspicions even further that the Turkish government was involved in a failed coup attempt in Turkey on July 15, 2016, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım said on Thursday that July 15 was a “project” he did not like or approve of.

Yıldırım’s remarks came during the Anadolu news agency’s “Editor’s Desk” program.

When one of the editors of the agency asked the prime minister, “Has there been any project that challenged you so much it made you say, ‘If only we had not gotten into this business’?”

“Which one [of them] should I tell you about? The project I did not like was July 15,” said Yıldırım, laughing, sparking a burst of laughter among the journalists who sat around the table with Yıldırım.

The prime minister’s remarks attracted widespread criticism on social media, with many saying that Yıldırım had confessed to the government’s involvement in the coup attempt, which claimed the lives of 249 people and injured a thousand others.

Immediately after the putsch the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) government along with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan pinned the blame on the Gülen movement.

Islamic cleric Fethullah Gülen, who inspired the movement, strongly denied having any role in the failed coup and called for an international investigation into it, but President Erdoğan — calling the coup attempt “a gift from God” — and the government initiated a widespread purge aimed at cleansing sympathizers of the movement from within state institutions, dehumanizing its popular figures and putting them in custody.

Amid an ongoing witch-hunt targeting the Gülen movement, more than 50,000 people have been jailed while more than 150,000 have been removed from state posts due to alleged Gülen links since the coup attempt.

Yıldırım is the last prime minister of the modern Turkish Republic as a new system of governance, an executive presidency, was adopted in a referendum last year. Yıldırım is expected to be the new speaker of parliament for the next legislative term.

 

Source: Turkish Minute , July 6, 2018

Tags: | | |


Related News

Abant Platform urges government, protesters to exercise common sense

Turkey’s leading social debate platform Abant has called on both government and protesters to exercise common sense, urging restraint for both sides to avoid violence in nationwide protests that gripped Turkey for more than a week. The Abant Platform expressed its concerns over possible chaos that could follow sometimes mutually violent actions of both sides […]

Erdoğan gov’t threatened to ‘wipe TUSKON off market map,’ says chairman

One of Turkey’s most influential business confederations, the Turkish Confederation of Businessmen and Industrialists (TUSKON), was threatened with being “wiped off the market” by the government after TUSKON made critical statements about government policies, chairman Rızanur Meral told the media on Friday.

Child of purged victim in Turkey says: I was 14 months old when my dad jailed

The child of a man who was arrested as part of a Turkish government crackdown on dissent following a failed coup last July said in a message on a piece of paper that “I was 14 months old when my father left.”

Swiss investigate alleged Turkish attempt to kidnap businessman

Switzerland is investigating whether Turkish diplomats planned to drug and kidnap a Swiss-Turkish businessman as part of a crackdown after the 2016 coup attempt in Turkey, federal prosecutors said on Wednesday.

‘Let my husband go to another country, just not Turkey’

Turkish citizen Turgay Karaman fears being deported back to Turkey, his wife Ayse Gul said today. “If his arrest has anything to do with political matters, and if the Malaysian authorities don’t want him here, they can send him to any other country but just not Turkey, because they will torture him there,” she told a press conference after the meeting.

Overshadowing the graft probe

Erdoğan’s government has removed around 113 police chiefs from their posts in a major overhaul and issued a decree that dealt a serious blow to judicial independence since the operation, which targeted some members of his inner circle, was initiated on Dec. 17. All these draconian measures taken by the government are intended to prevent the police and judiciary from carrying out criminal investigations without the government’s — i.e., the executive’s — knowledge.

Latest News

Fethullah Gulen – man of education, peace and dialogue – passes away

Fethullah Gülen’s Condolence Message for South African Human Rights Defender Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Hizmet Movement Declares Core Values with Unified Voice

Ankara systematically tortures supporters of Gülen movement, Kurds, Turkey Tribunal rapporteurs say

Erdogan possessed by Pharaoh, Herod, Hitler spirits?

Devious Use of International Organizations to Persecute Dissidents Abroad: The Erdogan Case

A “Controlled Coup”: Erdogan’s Contribution to the Autocrats’ Playbook

Why is Turkey’s Erdogan persecuting the Gulen movement?

Purge-victim man sent back to prison over Gulen links despite stage 4 cancer diagnosis

In Case You Missed It

Freedom House says security package undermines democracy in Turkey

Turkish govt begins massive deportation of Nigerian students

The follower of Hizmet

Consultation from Gülen’s perspective: The relationship between the ruler and the ruled

Advisor’s claim has potential to accelerate AK Party’s downfall

Kimse Yok Mu delivered aid to Arakan Muslims

Gülen sues Ankara chief public prosecutor for defamation after terrorist label

Copyright 2025 Hizmet News