Turkey coup bid was 'clear case of attack on democracy'

By Andac Hongur

ISTANBUL

The July 15 coup attempt was one of the clearest examples of an attack on democracy in recent decades, a senior European politician said Monday.

Christine Muttonen, president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), was among the first to condemn the coup, issuing a statement the following day.

The Austrian lawmaker was among an OSCE delegation that visited Ankara a month after the coup to meet members of the government including President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Parliament Speaker Ismail Kahraman and Prime Minister Binali Yildirim.

“Here in Turkey as discussed before only a few months ago we witnessed an attempted coup... one of the clearest attacks on democracy in modern times,” Muttonen said at a meeting of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly in Istanbul.

She added: “This attempted coup underlines the critical importance of strengthening democratic institutions so that they can stand up to all anti-democratic attacks.”

The coup attempt, which left 248 dead, has been blamed on the Fetullah Terrorist Organization led by U.S.-based Fetullah Gulen.