This is a developing story.
Turkey’s largest airport was shut, Istanbul’s major bridges were blocked and access to social media sites was reportedly cut off early Saturday (July 16), after a coup attempt by the Turkish military. State run media was also down, forcing Turkey’s president to use FaceTime to call into CNN Turk.
Flights into Istanbul’s Ataturk airport–the country’s largest–were diverted, according to reports by flight trackers on Twitter.
The Turkish military declared martial law and imposed a curfew, according to AFP. Erdogan, however, told citizens to take to the public squares and the airport.
One person who said he was on a flight from New York to Istanbul said it was at first unclear where the plane would land.
The US State Department issued an emergency message to US citizens in Turkey, urging them to stay away from “areas of conflict.”