Turkish Military Coup Attempt

[RoyalShock]

Erdogan has basically launched a counter-coup to purge anybody who might oppose him (especially the educated in his country). 15,000 public school teachers have been fired, 21,000 private school teacher have lost their license, 492 state religious personnel fired, and also 257 from prime minister office. Erdogan also has said anybody who urges restraint are supporters of the coup (expect US/EU/NATO relations to sour quickly).

After reading things like that it looks more and more to me as if he orchestrated the whole thing. How can you gather intel on hundreds of judges, 36,000 teachers and hundreds of others in less than a week? Doesn't pass the smell test.

[Play Angry]

At the very least, he had a "purge list" of dissidents prepared beforehand (and to be carried out under specific circumstances oddly similar to this - what foresight!) in a scope that would make Stalin blush.

The funny (not really) thing is, Erdogan himself is ideologically pretty far from being a "conservative" islamist in the sense we usually associate with certain other leaders in the region Turkey borders. He is really more of a strongman who has been, unfortunately, democratically elected in a series of elections which have generally been deemed fair by neutral observers, and he is using the levers of his populist appeal to rid himself of any political threats. It also happens that, in his country, the poor and uneducated masses (the targets of his populist rhetoric) also tend to be far more religiously conservative, so he uses that as a rallying cry and tool of manipulation for the legions of morons who see him as their "seat at the table" in a government that has often been led by individuals espousing and legislating disproportionately secular views (vis a vis the views held by the masses and not the intelligentsia).

He is arrogant to think he control what he is unleashing by ridding his system of its checks and balances. The low-income, religiously-inclined folks who he is utilizing as his pseudo-mob will not be so easy to displace from power and influence over the long term, and their views will become increasingly reflected in the government's legislation, judiciary, and foreign policy actions. Basically, he may "control" them in the short term as a means to centralizing his power, but over the long term that faction will chip away at any remaining dissent (to their views, not Erdogan's) until they are ultimately the ones pulling the levers.

[SB Shock]

He is arrogant to think he control what he is unleashing by ridding his system of its checks and balances.

I agree.

I have read one analysis that is was the Islamic portion of the military that tried to initiate the coup. They were not happy with the speed of the islamic reforms (if you recall Erdogan has just reached out to Israel, Russian and Syria). They were hoping the rest of the military would join in. Several secular leaning generals order their troops back to the barracks and issued condemnation which helped the coup to fizzle. He maybe removing the balances that would actually help keep him in power through normal democratic means.