The Failed Coup in Turkey: What You Need to Know

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced a three-month state of emergency last Thursday in Ankara, continuing his purge of state institutions, and raising further concerns about restrictions on freedoms and rights in Turkey. Once considered a model for the Middle East, Turkey is no longer up to the task. The attempted coup—which President Erdogan attributes to his former rival, Fethullah Gulen, who has been in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania since 1999—is by no means the only problem with the troubled state: Turkey has also been an unstable partner in NATO’s fight against ISIS, and has been using the Syrian refugee crisis as leverage on the European Union. Once a bastion of secularism in the Middle East, Turkey has proven that it is not above the larger trends at work in the region. President Erdogan’s crackdown has been swift and decisive. Over 1500 rectors of universities have been asked for their resignation, nearly 3000 military personnel have been arrested, and around 2000 judges and other public officials have been detained. Students of history will recall that Turkey also underwent a failed military coup d’etat in 1960, a “coup by memorandum” in 1971, and a successful military coup in 1980. In the 1980 coup d’etat, 500,000 people were arrested and 50 were executed. For perspective, about 35,000 in total have been detained in this year’s coup, and while Erdogan has made calls to reinstate the death penalty—abolished in July 2004 to qualify for membership in the EU—no prisoners have been executed so far. The semi-autonomous nature of the Turkish military has been a stumbling block for the country, and President Erdogan is taking steps to bring them under his control, for better or for worse. The ultimate cause of the coup, Erdogan claims, was not a military general, but a sufi mystic living in Pennsylvania: Fethullah Gulen. The so-called “Gulen Movement” is a transnational religious and social movement that advocates for a modern-oriented version of Islam, and has been praised by some for its pacifism. James Jeffrey, a former American ambassador to Turkey, called the organization a “cult-like” movement, and said that very little information exists about its size and aims. Mr. Gulen left Turkey in 1999 after being charged with plotting to overthrow the state. The charges, Mr. Jeffrey wrote, were based on a sermon Mr. Gulen had given in which he said, “our friends, who have positions in legislative and administrative bodies, should learn its details and be vigilant all the time so they can transform it and be more fruitful on behalf of Islam in order to create a nationwide restoration.” When corruption investigations were launched into Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) in 2013, he blamed Gulen. It is because of his perceived influence in the schools, police, and judiciary that these groups were targeted in the aftermath of the coup. While Gulen has strongly condemned the 2016 coup, Erdogan lays fault on the movement he began. Whether or not Gulen was behind the coup plot is unclear at this stage. Some believe that Gulen staged the coup himself, so that he could consolidate his power over the military, punish his political rivals, and gain a boost in popularity—all of which have happened in the time since the coup was launched. Some Turkish officials have even expressed that they believe the United States played a role in the coup, an accusation Secretary of State John Kerry dismissed as “irresponsible.” Much of the details of the attempted coup are merely speculative, and need more objective verification. U.S. courts may play that role, as Turkey is expected to make a formal call for Gulen’s extradition soon; however, at 75 years old, Gulen may not live long enough for the proceedings to render a verdict. Instability in Turkey could have profound consequences for NATO, which has been launching airstrikes from Turkish airbases since July 2015. The Turks are deeply distrustful of the U.S. relationship with the Kurds in the fight against ISIS. Of the 11 terrorist attacks that have taken place in Turkey, six were by the Islamic State, and the other five were by the PKK. Moreover, according to the Council on Foreign Relations’ expert on Turkey, Steve Cook, “Erdogan had difficult relationships with almost all of the major Middle Eastern countries.” With enemies on all sides, and at a low-point in relations with the United States, Cook fears that Turkey may be pushed into the hands of Putin, despite the recent history between the two countries. “Erdogan,” he lamented, “really has no place to go.”  Furthermore, Turkey’s central role in harboring Syrian refugees—approximately three million currently reside there—has been used as leverage in its talks of entering the EU; if Europe does not acquiesce, Turkey has threatened to move refugees in their direction. Turkey is increasingly becoming an unreliable security partner, ruled by chaos where there once was stability. An illiberal democracy flirting with greater Islamization—Ataturk would be deeply disappointed at what the nation he envisioned has reverted to.