For many Turks who were anxiously following the sudden attempted coup
unfolding on the night of July 15, one of the unforgettable images was
the white face of Tijen Karaş, an experienced speaker on state-run TRT
television. Hands shaking, blond hair pulled back, eyes showing fear,
face and voice frozen, the young woman read out from the monitor that
the declaration she was to read was an “order from the Turkish Armed
Forces.”
“It was the most difficult broadcast of my entire life,”
she told the press later. “The armed soldiers rushed into the station,
tied our hands back and threatened us with their guns.”
The
group, which called itself the “Peace in the Country Council,” was a
group within the military reportedly loyal to Fethullah Gülen, a
U.S.-based cleric who was initially a mentor of President Recep Tayyip
Erdoğan, then his arch-enemy. The group holding Karaş at gunpoint made
her announce that a curfew and martial law had been declared on screen
at around 9:30 p.m., Turkish time, on July 15. The group’s declaration,
reminiscent of the earlier military coups, consisted of quotes from
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of modern Turkey, accusations of
“treason” of the president and assurances that the public would not be
harmed if they stayed home.
A few hours later, on Turkey’s most
watched private TV channel CNN Türk, another senior female journalist,
Hande Fırat, put her iPhone in front of the cameras to broadcast a Face
Time call with Erdoğan.
The president urged people to “take to
the streets” to resist the coup and defend democracy, along with the
police force, members of the military who were not part of the coup and
members of the “Special Operations Unit,” which had already defeated the
putschists in most areas.
This was a critical moment in the fight against the coup, if not actually the moment that turned the balances. Fırat, the Ankara
bureau chief, would later explain that she had called all her sources
in Erdoğan’s circle as soon as she was alerted to the developments and
finally suggested that Erdoğan connect through the telephone (she has
received congratulatory calls from Saudi Arabia and Oman, in addition to
a unique offer over Twitter from a man offering to buy the phone for
$250,000).
After the president’s call, thousands of people,
carrying both Turkish flags and ruling Justice and Development Party
(AKP) banners, rushed out to stage demonstrations against the coup
attempt. Most were shouting “Allah-u Akbar” (God is Great).