Crimean Tatar leader: Coup does not suit Turkey

ESKISEHIR, Turkey

Turkey does not deserve to undergo military coups, said a major Ukrainian Tatar leader Saturday, decrying the July 15 attempted coup.

"We saw the incidents which Turkey went through on July 15 with sorrow. A military coup does not suit Turkey, a democratic country," Mustafa Abduldzhemil Dzhemilev Kirimoglu, former chair of Ukrainian Tatars’ representative assembly the Mejlis, told the World Congress of Crimean Tatars in Turkey's central Eskisehir province.

Kirimoglu stated that the coup attempt had ironically led to good consequences, for instance all Turkey’s political parties uniting afterwards.

"Fighting ended. All the people took to the streets. Turkish people announced to the world that they side with democracy," he said.

He expressed his congratulations to the Turkish people for defeating the coup attempt, calling them his "kin".

"If the unity and solidarity in the country continue, the future of the Turkish people looks bright. Turkey is very important for us," Kirimoglu added.

Turkish citizens took the streets on the night of July 15 to block the coup attempt following Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's call to take to the streets.

Turkey's government has repeatedly said the deadly coup attempt, which martyred more than 230 people and injured nearly 2,200 others, was organized by U.S.-based preacher Fetullah Gulen's followers and the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO).

Gulen is also accused of a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police, and judiciary, forming what is commonly known as the parallel state.

Turkey declared a state of emergency following the overthrow attempt.

Approximately 13,000 members of the military, police, and judiciary, as well as civil servants, have been detained since the failed putsch, and tens of thousands more removed from their posts.

In April, a Russia-backed prosecutor in Crimea suspended the Mejlis, branding it an “extremist organization.”

Crimea was formally annexed by Moscow in March 2014 after an illegal independence vote on the heels of violent anti-government protests in the Ukrainian capital Kiev that led to the overthrow of then-President Victor Yanukovich.

More than 9,000 people have lost their lives due to the conflict between the Ukrainian government and pro-Russian rebels since April 2014, according to the UN.

The UN General Assembly voted almost unanimously to proclaim the annexation illegal.

Along with many UN countries, including the U.S. and the EU, Turkey does not recognize Crimea as Russian territory.