Nobel laureate Tawakkol Karman joins anti-coup protests in Ankara

Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Yemeni activist Tawakkol Karman joined thousands of people in Ankara's Kızılay Square on Monday to protest the July 15 failed coup attempt.

Karman, who became the face of the 2011 Yemeni uprising, shared a photo of herself in Kızılay Square on her Twitter account, sending her greetings:

تحياتي من ميدان كيزالاي في انقرة pic.twitter.com/Lm6VLNk8hZ

— توكل كرمان (@TawakkolKarman) July 25, 2016

She was referred to as the 'iron woman' and 'the mother of the revolution' in Yemen, and received the Nobel Peace Prize for playing a leading role in the struggle for women's rights, democracy and peace in Yemen.

After the "February Yemen Revolution" within the Arab Spring of 2011, Shiite President Ali Abdullah Saleh was forced to transfer his authority to his deputy and incumbent president Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi on June 4, 2011; thus, the 33-year Saleh regime came to an end in Yemen. Hadi, appointed as vice president on October 3, 1994, became the acting president when Saleh underwent medical treatment in Saudi Arabia following an attack on the presidential palace on June 3, 2011.