Villagers in Turkey’s Black Sea region learned of coup attempt 10 days later due to lack of power

GİRESUN

Locals living without power in the highlands of the Bulancak district of the Black Sea province of Giresun learned of the July 15 failed coup attempt 10 days afterward from a shepherd, daily Habertürk has reported.

Villagers in the highlands of the district gathered to sign a petition and apply to the Giresun Governor’s Office in a move to get power after many years, saying that they learned of the July 15 coup attempt, which was blamed on the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (FETÖ), 10 days later from a shepherd.

“There is power in most of the highlands in the Black Sea. However, we have not have power in our highlands for years,” Emine Akçal, a local who pioneered the petition, said, according to the report.

“That being the case, we cannot listen to the radio or watch television or hear the sounds of the call to prayer. We even learned of the coup which happened on July 15 from a shepherd. We solve our problems with gas lamps in this age,” she said.

Akçal also noted there were no telephone lines in some highlands and calls to prayer were not recited in some places, adding the locals in the highlands wanted power to improve highland tourism and be informed of developments in the world.

“We have erected electricity poles to most of those highlands by our own means. We want to benefit from technological advantages by getting power. We heard of the coup attempt in the country and our president’s call [to take to the streets on the night of the attempt] 10 days later,” Akçıl added.

Connecting to private broadcaster CNN Türk via FaceTime from the Aegean resort Marmaris, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had called on citizens to take to the streets and protest the coup attempt, which claimed at least 240 lives and left more than 2,000 wounded.