A plane carrying Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has landed at Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport. The country’s leader is making a statement on the military coup. Erdogan has addressed crowds of supporters after emerging at Ataturk Airport.

Having thanked the public and politicians for their support, the president said that Turkey would not be intimidated by illegal attempts to seize power. He said those involved in the military coup will get necessary response, regardless of what institution they are from.

Reassuring the audience that “the minority group” behind the attempted coup would pay for what they had done, Erdogan said the people of his country would stand up straight and strong. Saying that the law is above all in Turkey, the president said that people going into the streets to support it was “the best answer” to those who tried to forcefully seize power.

Erdogan called the attempted coup “a gift from God,” as it would help cleanse the military of “members of the gang,” he was reported as saying. Erdogan claimed that forces loyal to US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen were behind the attempted coup, saying that Friday’s events had shown that “the Gulen structure is an armed terrorist organization.”The exiled preacher has resided in the US for over 15 years. Initially a firm ally of Erdogan, Gulen is now facing a potential life sentence in Turkey for orchestrating an earlier coup attempt as the two fell out.

Announcing that he was not going anywhere, the Turkish president said he would stay with his people. Earlier, the alleged presidential plane could be seen circling above mainland Turkey on the FlightRadar24 tracker, before heading to Istanbul. Unconfirmed reports of explosions were coming from the airport following the landing of the plane, as some military aircraft allegedly flew by.