Turkey demands resignation of public and private university deans

People gather near the Sultan Mehmed II statue at the Sarachane park in Istanbul on July 19, 2016 during a demonstration to support Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Turkey has demanded the resignation of 1,577 university deans accused of helping a failed attempted coup on July 15, 2016. PHOTO | AFP

What you need to know:

  • The country's higher education board made the demand for deans at state and private foundation universities to resign.
  • A Turkish army faction backed by tanks and fighter jets waged a coup attempt against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Turkey has demanded the resignation of 1,577 university deans suspected of being connected with Friday's attempted coup, state-run news agency Anadolu reported Tuesday.
The country's higher education board made the demand for deans at state and private foundation universities to resign, Anadolu said.

A Turkish army faction backed by tanks and fighter jets waged a coup attempt against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, but the strongman returned to Istanbul defiantly claiming to have regained control.

Soldiers and tanks took to the streets late on Friday and multiple explosions rang out throughout the night in Ankara and Istanbul, the two biggest cities of the strategic NATO country of 80 million people.

With officials insisting the takeover bid was falling apart, officials said 60 people had been killed and 754 detained in a night of violence in Turkey's major cities.

Dozens of soldiers backing the coup surrendered on the Bosphorus bridge in Istanbul that they had held throughout the night, holding their hands above their heads as they were detained, television pictures showed.

Erdogan predicted that the putsch would fail and crowds of supporters of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) came out onto the streets to try to block it.

After hours of chaos unseen in decades, the president ended uncertainty over his whereabouts, flying into Istanbul airport in the early hours where he made a defiant speech and was greeted by hundreds of supporters.

Erdogan denounced the coup attempt as "treachery" but said he was carrying out his functions and would keep on working "to the end".