Failed Coup In Turkey May Not Have Been As It Appeared

PJ Media posted a story this morning about the military coup in Turkey last night. As I have previously stated, I was hoping that the military would oust President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and move the country back toward a secular democracy. Unfortunately, that did not happen. It should also be noted that President Obama supported President Erdogan rather than the military who were attempting to undo President Erdogan’s move toward becoming an Islamic state. However, there may be another aspect to this story that is not being widely reported.

The article at PJ Media reports:

…Both Prime Minister Binali Yildirim and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called into news programs and told their supporters to go out on the streets and fight back against the soldiers. A short while later, streets in the big cities (Ankara and Izmir) were flooded with Erdogan-supporters, who even climbed on top of tanks. Fast forward a few hours and it was officially announced that the coup had failed, and that Erdogan and his AK Party remained in power. About 1500 soldiers were arrested.

As I wrote on Twitter yesterday, there were three options:

  1. The coup was staged by a small group within the military, which would severely limit their ability to strike.
  2. The coup was staged by the entire military, which meant Erdogan’s chances of surviving politically were extremely small.
  3. The coup was a set-up. Think the Reichstag fire.

The main argument against option number three is that there was some very serious fighting taking place, including massive explosions. Dozens of people have been killed. If this was a fake coup, it probably was the bloodiest one ever. That’s why many people are skeptical about this option, and believe it was just an incompetent attempt at a military takeover.

The article also mentions the possible result of the coup. President Erdogan will undoubtedly move against those who were (or who he decides were) involved in the coup. He will consolidate his power and move Turkey closer to an Islamic state. It will be interesting to see what impact this coup will have on the recent agreement signed with Israel.

Turkey is a member of NATO.  At best, that is awkward for the west–as Turkey moves closer to being an Islamic state, that alliance is going to be severely strained.

The article at PJ Media concludes:

Of course we now have to see what Erdogan’s government will do. More than 100 soldiers involved in the coup have been killed, military commanders were taken hostage, and Erdogan has vowed revenge. As anyone with even a bit of knowledge of history knows, the crackdowns after a failed coup can be as bad as the crackdown after a successful military takeover. Erdogan already wanted to change Turkey’s constitution and change the system into a so-called presidential system, meaning most if not all power would reside in his office. Nobody doubts that this is exactly what’ll happen now: he’ll draw all power to himself and ignite a major cleansing, possibly not only of the military and police forces, but also in politics itself.

The only possibly conclusion, then, is: no matter what, democracy will suffer a major setback in Turkey. We can only hope and pray that the consequences will be less severe than I fear.

I don’t know if it would have made a difference if President Obama had supported the coup. It is interesting to me that he was ready to depose dictators when the Muslim Brotherhood was in the wings, but not when a coup might have resulted in freedom for the people of Turkey.