Edmonton couple sees a different Turkey after coup attempt

Ever since the coup attempt, the streets of Yalikavak in western Turkey have been empty.

That's what Edmontonian Perry Thomas said about the town that he and his wife are currently staying in. Thomas said the other thing he's noticed is the police.

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"We'd gone to the police station a few days ago because I had found a wallet, we went there to hand it in. It was very casual, a typical laid-back town police station," Thomas said Saturday in a telephone interview from Yalikavak, a town on the Aegean coast. 

Now they have bulletproof vests on and had sub-machine guns so it's a very different feel from that point of view.-Perry Thomas

He said the first time police were friendly, and even served the couple Baklava, but less than a week later the picture was different. 
 
"Now they have bulletproof vests on and had submachine-guns, so it's a very different feel from that point of view."

Thomas, a radio and television instructor at NAIT, said they were lucky they weren't in a major centre and were able to just hunker down during the uprising, but they has still seen some effects.

"It's been quite a day, we had left our room to go into the town and it was very, very quite, unusually quiet, there was nobody out," said Thomas.

"Our guess was that that people were glued to their televisions to keep abreast of the developments."

But for the couple, it was quiet, and they only learned of the coup attempt through Twitter and empty streets.

At least we're not in Istanbul or Ankara where we would be a little more concerned.- Perry Thomas

"Normally the streets and walkways would have been filled with people but as we walked there was almost nobody out, it was very strange," he said.

"Like maybe being here in January or something."

"At least we're not in Istanbul or Ankara where we would be a little more concerned." 

The Canadian government has issued a travel advisory for the country that recommends only essential travel and if you must travel, to do it by commercial means. 

And that's just what the couple are planning to do.

"We're just going to sit tight and see what happens for the next few days," said Thomas. "We're supposed to leave for London via Istanbul on Friday and that's probably what we'll end up doing, but we'll be monitoring the situation."