That Was Scary.

Coup Attempt In Turkey.

Well this has been an eventful twelve hours or so. Late last night there was an attempted military take-over of the country, which has now been put down, with, thankfully and sadly, relatively few casualties. As one might imagine, last night was largely sleepless which we spent preparing back-packs filled with two days worth of clothing, passports, and our most prized possessions, in the event that we would have to flee (yes, I used the word "flee") to safety in one of the foreign consulates here.

Strangely, even though we live a mere ten minutes from Istanbul's central square where there was, apparently, a confrontation taking place between military and protesters, the coup-attempt was for us a largely quiet affair. Throughout most of the night, however, the sonic boom of low-flying jets flying over the city reminded us that there was a conflict taking place around us. At a couple of points in the night, we could hear what sounded like explosions in the distance.

Helicopters - presumably, military - with their lights turned off, flew patrols over the area, and an occasional chant carried to our apartment from some undefined place in the distance. At some point in the night, a crowd passed nearby our house, chanting, "Allehu Akabar", presumably on their way to confront the army in the main square.

It's now, ten in the morning, the uprising seems to have been quelled, and all is quiet. We're staying indoors today, and probably for the whole weekend.