Holiday, name change to honor stand against coup

Parliament's Internal Affairs Committee approved proposals to declare July 15 a national holiday and rename a district of the capital in honor of the victims of the coup attempt.

Under the draft bill greenlit by the committee, July 15, the day when a Gülenist junta sought to seize power, will be named "Democracy and Freedom Day" in honor of the more than 240 people that fell while resisting the putsch. Kazan, a district on the outskirts of the capital Ankara will be renamed "Kahraman (hero) Kazan" in a tribute to its residents. Kazan was at the heart of the resistance against the coup as locals risked their lives to stand up against coup troops at Akıncı Air Base. The Air Base was where the top military brass was held hostage and fighter jets took off to bomb the Presidential Palace, Parliament and other strategic locations on the night of July 15.

Speaking at the parliamentary session to discuss the bill, Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu stated that July 15 was etched into the public memory as a symbol of the ability to "stand as a nation in the face of suffering, in the face of a heinous attack." He also praised all the political parties' will to stand against the coup plotters.

"People of Kazan believed they would succeed in stopping the coup when they went to (Akıncı) and they were heroes of the many stories of bravery. They made it into history in this saga to stand for the Republic and the nation's independence," Soylu said about the resistance in Kazan. "I can't grasp it even today how a person run into certain death, with no arms whatsoever in his or her hands against the tanks," Soylu said of Kazan residents.

Nine people were killed and 92 others were injured in the district when coup troops opened fire on the unarmed crowd trying to force their way into the base in a bid to stop them.