Turkey: After Failed Coup, Erdogan Cracks Down
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- Published on Sunday, 31 July 2016 22:00
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A Socialist Project e-bulletin .... No. 1287 .... August 1, 2016
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Turkey: After Failed Coup, Erdogan Cracks Down
Tony Iltis
Faced with an attempt to overthrow his government, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan described the coup as "a gift from God" -- and wasted no time in exploiting it to further entrench his authoritarian regime.
Turkish government broadcaster TRT was seized by a group of military officers calling themselves the "Peace in the Country Council" on July 15, who announced that they had taken over the country. Within 24 hours, the coup attempt had failed. Erdoğan responded by calling his supporters to the streets. Once his government's survival was guaranteed, it quickly became clear that one coup's failure was becoming another's success.
The authoritarian president has been seeking to concentrate more power in his own... hands. However, his ambitions were frustrated last year by the success of the left-wing Kurdish-led People's Democratic Party (HDP) in elections. This blocked plans by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) to change the constitution, which required winning two-thirds of parliamentary seats.
Erdoğan's use of the failed coup to launch one of his own was borne out by scenes on July 16 and following days. Mobs of Erdoğan's right-wing Islamist supporters beat and lynched soldiers surrendering after the coup and launched attacks on neighbourhoods inhabited by minorities and supporters of the left. It has been further borne out by a huge purge that has targeted not just the military, judiciary and civil service, but also the media, academia and civil society. The purge deepened pre-existing moves by Erdoğan to control these institutions.