As you may know, Turkey has been facing many difficult challenges for the past several years. As usual, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has blamed a group for the recent coup attempt without any evidence.

This early blaming of the coup on the Gulen movement only raises suspicion about the validity of President Erdogan’s claims and intentions – to get credit and to continue his anti-democratic and dictatorial style.

He has stopped almost all free media and jailed many opposing him. We are afraid that this attempted coup will be used by him to push more dictatorship on the people of Turkey.

Please keep the innocent people of Turkey in your prayers. We, as Turkish Americans in Maine, stand with democracy, not with any military intervention, which is against democracy.

Yusuf Demir

Portland