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

Bank Asya shares surge after Turkish election results

The AK Party’s failure to secure enough votes to form the government reflects on the stock market, with the politically-seized Bank Asya’s shares observing a 10.75 percent increase at opening on Monday amidst an overall drop in Borsa Istanbul.

Islamabad High Court moved against expected closure of Turkish schools

The Islamabad High Court yesterday issued notices to ministries of foreign affairs and interior in a petition moved against any possible step of the government to close down the schools being run by Pak-Turk Education Foundation.

Yet another woman faces detention at hospital immediately after giving birth

Police are waiting outside a room in Ankara Memorial Hospital to detain Feyza Yazıcı, who gave birth to a premature baby on Friday, as part of the Turkish government’s witch-hunt against the Gülen movement.

BBC report: Women with younger-than 6-months-old babies in jail in Turkey

Hundreds of women are in pretrial detention in jails across Turkey with their infants, some of them less than six months old, due to a state of emergency declared after a failed coup last year, a BBC Turkish report said on Friday.

Turkey purge victims unable to find jobs, cannot leave country

“It’s a kind of civil death,” Kerem Altıparmak, a human rights lawyer and political science professor at Ankara University, told the Los Angeles Times to describe how the lives of thousands have changed since a July 15 coup attempt. “You cannot leave the country, you cannot find other jobs, either because of legal or de facto obstacles, because even in the private sector people do not want to employ you.”

Politics and communities

The state can no longer control the estate in its entirety. As a matter of fact, society and politics cannot be perceived as an “estate.” Thus, civil forces and communities want to be influential over decision-making mechanisms related to political processes and public polices, not over the state.

Latest News

Turkish inmate jailed over alleged Gülen links dies of heart attack in prison

Message of Condemnation and Condolences for Mass Shooting at Bondi Beach, Sydney

Media executive Hidayet Karaca marks 11th year in prison over alleged links to Gülen movement

ECtHR faults Turkey for convictions of 2,420 applicants over Gülen links in follow-up to 2023 judgment

New Book Exposes Erdoğan’s “Civil Death Project” Targeting the Hizmet Movement

European Human Rights Treaty Faces Legal And Political Tests

ECtHR rejects Turkey’s appeal, clearing path for retrials in Gülen-linked cases

Erdoğan’s Civil Death Project’ : The ‘politicide’ spanning more than a decade

Fethullah Gülen’s Vision and the Purpose of Hizmet

In Case You Missed It

A February 28 tactic from the PKK

Visually impaired journalist sent to prison over Gülen links

İstanbul woman suffers miscarriage in police custody

Fethullah Gulen’s Message of Condemnation and Condolences for St. Petersburg Terrorist Attack

Clash of two Islams in Turkey

Teacher detained in Turkey after forced return from Myanmar

Who staged a coup against whom on Dec. 17?

Copyright 2026 Hizmet News