Erdoğan vows to prevent further coup threats

ANKARA

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said Türkiye will prevent any future coup attempts similar to the one orchestrated by the FETÖ in 2016.

"July 15 [coup attempt] is the latest example of how much damage an impostor disguised as a teacher can do to our country. We cannot allow such a tragedy to happen again," Erdoğan said, referring to FETÖ's U.S.-based leader, Fetullah Gülen.

His remarks came during the first graduation ceremony of an academy established within Türkiye's top religious body, Diyanet, in the capital Ankara on Feb. 1.

Erdoğan urged the newly graduated religious officials not to limit themselves to traditional roles.

"An imam is at the same time the leader of the people in which he lives and at the same time a person to be pointed at," he said. "Every gap you leave will be filled by terrorist organizations such as FETÖ, drug merchants, social media terrorists and heretical movements."

The foiled coup – which targeted key locations in the capital Ankara, Istanbul, Marmaris and elsewhere – resulted in the loss of over 300 lives and left around 2,200 people injured.

"The recklessness towards Sharia in some circles in Türkiye, albeit few in number, is rooted in ignorance and ill-informedness. We are saddened to see that at least a section of our country is suffocating from the darkness of ignorance," Erdoğan remarked.

"This ignorance is a threat to our national structure. We will tear away the darkness of ignorance."

He suggested the inseparable connection between Islam and Turkish identity, dismissing any attempts to divorce the two. "To say Turk is also to say Muslim. The understanding that separates Islam from Turks and Turks from Islam has no connection with these lands," he stated.

Erdoğan accused certain factions of attempting to redefine Turkishness without Islam, labeling them as "lumpen fascists" who seek to undermine historical and cultural values.

"We have been the banner of Islam for centuries... Their aim here is to disrupt the yeast of the nation. They want to collapse the castle they cannot shake from the inside," he stated.