Kemal AtatÃ

Ankara Mayor Melih Gökçek’s nearly two million Twitter followers had a surprise this morning, with tweets inviting them for a delicious simit in the city’s main square and announcing free public transportation, which sounded too goofy even by the eccentric standards of the social media-loving mayor.

A day following their release from prison, convicts from the Balyoz (Sledgehammer) coup plot case have visited Anıtkabir, the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Republic of Turkey.

The Balyoz convicts and their relatives stood in homage to Atatürk and sang the national anthem in Anıtkabir on June 20. 

The former head of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), nominated by the two major opposition parties represented at the Turkish Parliament as their joint presidential candidate on June 16, has addressed secular voters in his first interview.