Strange tales

From a mysterious new moustache to suggestions that genies helped the coup plotters, here are some of the stranger stories emerging after Turkey's botched military putsch.

How to stop a tank

Civilians played a crucial role in defeating the coup. Online searches for "How to stop a tank" skyrocketed on the night of the coup on July 15, according to Google Trends, especially in the cities of Konya, Kayseri, Istanbul and Ankara. Istanbul restaurant owner Mehmet Sukru Kintas and chef Danyal Simsek found an unusual but effective method for halting the tanks: stuffing clothes into their exhaust pipes, according to media reports. Soon after they heard about the coup attempt, the pair took their car and blocked tanks heading for the city's main international Ataturk airport. Acting on a tip-off from a repairman there, they managed to stop about 10 tanks by blocking their exhaust pipes and filters, the Hurriyet newspaper reported.

Hypnotising with genies

Ankara Mayor Melih Gokcek, in an interview with CNN-Turk television, claimed that alleged coup mastermind Fethullah Gulen was hypnotising his followers using "an interesting method". He said that Gulen, a reclusive US-based cleric, was "taking hold of people" through genies. "It's possible," Gokcek said. "He has such a capability."

Coup plotter in drag

Coup plotters who attacked the hotel where Erdogan was staying on the night of the putsch were forced to take desperate measures as they went on the run for days afterwards. Some of them ate leaves from vineyards to survive as they fled the scene of the attack in the western seaside resort of Marmaris, while one of them stole women's clothes from a farm house to wear in disguise, reports said. Another was caught in the nearby town of Ula while trying to hitchhike, dressed as a holidaymaker in shorts and a shirt.

Loyalty by moustache?

Turkey's previously clean-shaven spy chief Hakan Fidan -- under pressure for intelligence failures -- has come out with a different image since the coup bid. At a recent meeting with Erdogan, Fidan was suddenly seen with a new moustache in what some saw as an expression of loyalty to the similarly mustachioed president.

Smartphone rockets to fame

In the midst of the coup, Erdogan's first messages to the public came through the rather unpresidential medium of a FaceTime video call to a reporter's mobile phone. CNN-Turk's Ankara correspondent Hande Firat, who took the call, has since been fending off lucrative offers for her now globally famous smartphone -- including from a Saudi businessman who said he'd pay $250,000 for it.