On October 12th, 2015, I published a column in “Globes” on the situation in Turkey. In that column, after outlining all the problems faced by Turkey domestically and internationally, I wrote: “At the point that chaos threatens, the army will step in and take over”.
Well, the army stepped in nine months later, but did not take over. Last week’s coup was so badly planned and executed that it beggars belief. If the head of the regime you wish to overthrow is vacationing in a town on the coast, the number one task is to neutralize him, then go on with the rest of the operation. This was not done, despite the apparent fact that rebel fighter planes had his aircraft in sight on its way to Istanbul, but failed to shoot it down.
President Erdogan, using a social media network, rallied his supporters while the coup plotters failed to rally anyone. This is very strange, since the Kemalists, the alevis, the Gulenists and the Kurds, taken together represent about half the population, detest him.
Other criticisms of the coup could be written about and may be, when I publish Coups d’etat for Dummies, but for the time being it is sufficient that it failed. Ignoring completely international pleas that the plot not be utilized by the regime for a widespread crackdown and imposition of open dictatorship, Erdogan is doing just that. He is, in fact, decapitating the Turkish intellectual elite, while blaming the event on the US and Fethullah Gulen, who denies the accusation and who immediately denounced the coup.
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