A retired United States Army lieutenant colonel, Ralph Peters said on Saturday that the coup stagers in Turkey were "the good guys" and President Obama should have kept his mouth shut because the people staging coup were on the US's side.
"The situation is indeed murky. We won't know until Saturday morning at the earliest what is really -- who has really won... But the macro picture is very, very clear. This coup is Turkey's last chance to avoid becoming an authoritarian Islamist regime. An Islamic dictatorship. We should make no mistake, the people launching this coup are the good guys." Peters said about the democratically-elected government of Turkey while speaking to Fox News channel.
Blaming Obama of romanticizing Islam, the retired army official said, "If this coup fails you will see a crackdown eliminate the last vestiges of secularism.
President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry spoke by phone and gave their support to Erdoğan after Turkey's military said it had seized power on Friday.
"The President and Secretary agreed that all parties in Turkey should support the democratically-elected government of Turkey, show restraint, and avoid any violence or bloodshed," the White House said in a statement.
On Friday night, renegade elements within Turkey's military attempted to stage a coup against the government. Although the coup was soon put down by the country's legitimate authorities and security apparatus, some 161 people were killed in the violence, according to Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım.
Some 2,839 military personnel involved in the coup attempt have been arrested and 20 soldiers involved, including some senior officers, were killed in the attempt to overthrow the government.
The government has said the coup bid was organized by followers of U.S.-based, fugitive imam Gülen, who is accused of a longstanding campaign to overthrow the government through supporters within the Turkish state, particularly the military, police and judiciary.
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