The Turkish coup appears to have collapsed almost as quickly as it began, with government forces backing Turkish President (and Islamist scumbag) Tayyip Erdogan in the process of mopping up the last coup forces.
There’s a conspiracy theory floating around that Erdogan staged the coup for his own benefit so he could consolidate his grip on power. This I don’t believe, because the sort of effort required to carry this off (multiple military movements in both Ankara and Istanbul, control of tanks, helicopter and fighter aircraft units, coordination of seizing bridges, airports, TV stations, etc.), plus the significant amount of bloodshed involved, all strongly suggest that it wasn’t staged.
However, the speed with which is was carried out, and the even more rapid way in which it collapsed, suggests a more plausible conspiracy theory: It was a real coup carried out by elements of the Turkish military, but one that was compromised almost from the beginning from Erdogan sympathizers. Erdogan let the coup happen so he could consolidate his grip on power in the aftermath, which is precisely what happened, with purges of the military and judiciary (which doesn’t seem to have had anything to do with the coup).
Some puzzles:
It’s entirely possibly that the failed coup is just what it appeared to be as it unraveled: an attempt by a faction of the military that fell just short of seizing control which was underdone by Erdogan’s remaining popularity among the general populace. But there are still a lot of unanswered questions…
Tags: conspiracy theory, coup, Fethullah Gulen, Foreign Policy, Jihad, Military, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey
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