The reason, or reasons, behind the attempted coup in July aren’t yet fully known. However, it is suspected that this small section of the military attempted to overthrow Erdogan’s regime because they thought that the man himself was becoming too powerful and that he was turning Turkey away from its modern, secular tradition. The military in Turkey consider themselves to be the protectors of the nation’s secular values and it seems that more than a few thought Erdogan had gone so far that action needed to be taken.
And so on Friday 15th they made their attempt. At about 21:45 that evening they issued a statement saying that the military had taken over the Turkish state so as to safeguard democracy. It was then reported that the rebels has blocked two key bridges in the city of Istanbul. They proceeded to take over the state broadcaster TRT (the equivalent of the BBC in this country) and appeared to block airports in Istanbul and the country’s capital Ankara. Twitter, Facebook and YouTube were also blocked soon after the attempted coup began.
Erdogan was therefore forced to speak to the country via a webcam held in the hands of a news presenter. He denounced the coup as an open attack on the democratic will of the Turkish people and urged his supporters to ignore the curfew put in place by the army rebels and go out onto the streets and protest the coup. And they did. As a result, the rebels failed to take over the streets.
Just before two o’clock in the morning, Erdogan’s plane managed to land in an airport in Istanbul and soon afterwards, after a fightback by the Turkish armed police and pro-Erdogan protestors, the rebel soldiers began to surrender. At about a quarter to five Erdogan announced to his supporters that he was in charge and that the coup would not succeed. And it didn’t.
By 6AM it was being reported that 754 members of the Turkish armed forces had been arrested, in spite of earlier reports suggesting that there had only been 104 involved in the coup. By 8AM it was reported that well over 1500 military personnel had been arrested. Then later that morning Turkey’s acting Army Chief, General Umit Dundar, announced that the 104 “coup plotters” had been killed.
In light of the attempted coup, the Turkish government declared that they may bring back the death penalty. The phrase “I want death penalty” became a top trending hashtag in Turkey that day, with the BBC reporting just before 10AM that the hashtag had been used more than 23,000 times.
In light of the coup, which resulted in a death toll of 265, including 161 civilians, Erdogan began a purge of multiple state institutions. So far around 3000 soldiers have been arrested, over 2700 judges have been dismissed and the Turkish education ministry announced the closure of over 600 state schools “across the country” according to the Daily Telegraph. It is believed by some that Erdogan is cracking down on the nation’s secular institutions so as to turn them into Islamist ones. We shall have to wait and see.
Image: By Cancillería del Ecuador [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
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