President Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey and opposition members came together on Saturday to mark the anniversary of last year's failed coup, a moment of unity all but overshadowed by sweeping purges that have shaken society and sharpened divisions since.
The gathering in parliament was one of the first in a string of events planned through the weekend to commemorate the night of July 15, 2016, when thousands of unarmed civilians took to the streets to defy rogue soldiers who commandeered tanks and warplanes and bombed parliament in an attempt to seize power.
Erdogan and his wife later flew to Istanbul to join thousands making their way towards the Istanbul bridge over the Bosphorus where last year crowds of civilians stood defiant in front of tanks and troops halting traffic between the city's European and Asian sides.
Some 250 people died before the coup attempt was put down, a show of popular defiance that has likely ended decades of military interference in Turkish politics.
But along with a groundswell of nationalism, the coup's greatest legacy has been a far-reaching crackdown that has
deepened the divide between Western-facing, secular Turks and the pious millions who back Erdogan's Islamist-rooted politics.
Some 150,000 people have been sacked or suspended from jobs in the civil service and private sector and more than 50,000 detained for alleged links to the putsch. On Friday, the government said it had dismissed 7,000 more police, civil servants and academics for suspected links to the Muslim cleric it blames for the attempted coup.
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"Our people did not leave sovereignty to their enemies and took hold of democracy to the death," Prime Minister Binali
Yildirim said, as Erdogan and members of opposition parties looked on. "These monsters will surely receive the heaviest punishment they can within the law."
Critics, including rights groups and some Western governments, say Erdogan is using the state of emergency introduced after the coup to target opposition figures including rights activists, pro-Kurdish politicians and journalists.
The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) was represented by its deputy chairman as the party's two co-leaders are in jail, as are local members of rights group Amnesty International and nearly 160 journalists, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Parliament 'rendered obsolete'
At the parliamentary ceremony, the head of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) decried what he said
was the erosion of democracy following the coup.
"This parliament, which withstood bombs, has been rendered obsolete and its authority removed," said Kemal Kilicdaroglu, in a reference to an April referendum that Erdogan narrowly won, giving him sweeping executive powers.
"In the past year, justice has been destroyed. Instead of rapid normalization, a permanent state of emergency has been
implemented."
Kilicdaroglu this month finished a 25-day, 425-km "justice march" from Ankara to Istanbul, to protest the detention of a CHP lawmaker. The march, although largely ignored by the pro-government media, culminated in a massive rally in
Istanbul against the crackdown.
In a statement, the U.S. State Department lauded Turks for defending their democracy, but cautioned about the need to
preserve basic freedoms.
"More voices, not fewer, are necessary in challenging times," it said.
Thousands march
With the sun setting over Istanbul, many of the marchers en route to the bridge waved Turkish flags and photographs of those who died. Roads near the bridge, since renamed July 15 Martyrs' Bridge, were thronged with marchers and some opted to take ferries rather than navigate the heavy crowds.
In the run-up to the anniversary, Turkish media has been saturated by coverage from last year's coup, with some channels showing almost constant footage of young men and headscarved mothers facing down armed soldiers and tanks.
One man, 20-year-old Ismet Dogan, said he and his friends took to the streets, heeding the call from Erdogan to defy the soldiers. He was shot in both legs, he told broadcaster TRT Haber.
"My friends and I said, 'We have one nation, if we are to die, let's do it like men'," he said. "Everyone who was there
with me had come there to die. Nobody was afraid of death."
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