Erdogan opens monument to victims of failed coup

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has inaugurated a monument in the capital Ankara honoring the some 250 people who were killed opposing last year's failed coup attempt against his rule.

The monument - depicting people standing on top of four slanted columns, carrying a moon and crescent - is situated opposite Erdogan's huge palace complex in Ankara.

Erdogan opened the "Martyrs' Memorial" just after dawn on Sunday, following morning prayers at a mosque inside the complex.

The president said in address to thousands attending the ceremony: "even if we have buried our martyrs in the ground, they will always live in our hearts. (The coup-plotters) will die over and over again every day while they fester behind prison walls."