Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has actively supported cooperation with Islamist and terrorist organizations, according to a leaked German interior ministry document. | Turkish President Press Office/EPA Recep Tayyip Erdoğan: ‘Turkish armed forces must be cleansed’ The Turkish president says, ‘I am not going anywhere.’

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan flew to Istanbul in the midst of an attempted military coup and issued a defiant statement early Saturday, promising the armed forces would be "cleansed," saying the coup had failed and that many perpetrators had already been arrested.

Late Friday, elements of the Turkish military claimed they had taken control of the country, sending tanks into the streets of Istanbul and the capital Ankara, imposing a curfew and closing the main airports.

Erdoğan called the attempted coup an "act of treason," for which the perpetrators would "pay heavily." He said the military was preventing planes from landing at the airport.

The Turkish president addressed those taking part in the coup directly: "It is definitely not possible for us to accept guns being pointed at your fellow brothers and sisters, your children, your parents, mothers and fathers. If you do that, you will pay a heavy price."

Erdoğan denied rumors that he was seeking asylum abroad, saying: "I am not going anywhere ... We will never hand our countries to those intruders."