As Turkey prepares to mark the first anniversary of a failed coup attempt, Muslim scholars have hailed the victory of the Turkish democracy.
Turkey survived a deadly coup attempt on July 15 last year, launched by rogue elements within the military that martyred 250 people and injured nearly 2,200 others.
According to the Turkish government, the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) and its U.S.-based leader Fetullah Gulen orchestrated the defeated coup. Ankara also accuses FETO of being behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police, and judiciary.
The first vice-president of Tunisia's parliament, Abdelfattah Mourou, said the defeat of the coup was a great victory of the Turkish democracy.
“We were closely following the events of that night," Mourou, the vice-president of Ennahda movement, told Anadolu Agency.
"I was very afraid of losing one of the most successful democratic models in the region," he said. "I thank the Turkish people for defeating this coup."
The Tunisian scholar said the defeat of the coup has bolstered "the gains of the ordinary people, the gains of democracy, dignity and freedom and the gains that the Turkish people have struggled for decades to achieve".
Courageous Turks
Moulana Igsaan Hendricks, a member of the International Union for Muslim Scholars, praised the courage of the Turkish people for defeating the coup.
"We must congratulate the masses of Turkey, the common people who stood up and sent a strong message to any military power in the world that no military army has any power against the people,” Hendricks, a former president of the Muslim Judicial Council, said.
He said the Turkish people proved to the whole world that “if the masses move, there is no space for the military and dictatorships".
"When the masses move, it is always for the restoration of justice and freedom," he added.
Hendricks said if the coup had succeeded "it would have been a loss not only for the Turkish people, but also for the entire Muslim world".
Dr. Nawwaf Takrouri, head of the Palestinian Scholars Abroad, said the coup plot was not only orchestrated against Turkey but the whole Muslim world.
"It was targeting the Palestinian cause, Syria and the interests of the whole Muslim world," he told Anadolu Agency.
Takrouri recalled that he was in Turkey when the events of last July unfolded.
"However, I was confident that the Turkish people will not easily allow the coup to succeed," he said.
The Palestinian scholar went on to pay tribute to the Turkish people, who took to the streets to abort the coup attempt.
"The coup attempt was clearly arranged to destroy the choices of the Turkish people," he said.