Turks mass for post-coup 'unity' rally amid torture claims

Many thousands of flag-waving Turks massed today for the first cross-party rally to condemn the coup attempt against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, amid an ongoing purge of suspected state enemies.
Istanbul's Taksim square was transformed into a sea of red national flags in what was dubbed a "democracy festival".
But in stark contrast to the celebratory and patriotic mood in Istanbul, human rights group Amnesty International in London claimed it had "credible evidence" of the beating and torture of detainees.
The official number of those in custody since the July 15 putsch has surged above 13,000 soldiers, police, justice officials and civilians in a wave of arrests that has alarmed NATO allies and European leaders.

Despite the high tensions since the coup attempt, the mood in Istanbul was celebratory and strongly patriotic, with security tight following a series of recent attacks by Islamic State jihadists and Kurdish militants.
"We defend the republic and democracy" read one sign in the vast and jubilant crowd, while others declared "Sovereignty belongs to the people alone" and "No to the coup, yes to democracy!"

The mass event was called by the biggest opposition group, the secular and centre-left Republican People's Party (CHP), many of whose members carried pictures of modern Turkey's founding father Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
To signal patriotic unity and make the rally a cross-party event, it was joined by Erdogan's Islamic-conservative AKP, whose followers have rallied in support of the president every night since the failed putsch.

CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu in a speech to the rally said that amid the turmoil, "the parliament stood proudly, Turkey stood proudly, MPs stood proudly, people in this square have stood proudly, and democracy won!"
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim tweeted that "this country's Turks, Kurds, Alevis" and supporters of the major opposition parties "united together and gave the lesson needed to the putschists".
In London, Amnesty made serious claims about methods the government has allegedly used to rid the state of suspected conspirators.