As the dust settles on the failed coup in Turkey, details about what happened on Friday night and Saturday are beginning to emerge. In many respects, the coup was both amateurish and deadly. Amateurish, because the plotters only managed to take over one TV station and a couple of bridges. And deadly because lives were lost. Plotters are also said to have bombed the villa where the president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was staying, but only after he had left. In the capital, Ankara, tanks shelled the parliament.
Perhaps what made the coup particularly amateurish was that the plotters had not even secured the support of other groups, even those opposed to Mr Erdogan’s presidency. But they were never going to obtain such support: all the political parties opposed to Mr Erdogan denounced the coup – even the pro-Kurdish HDP. When even his enemies supported his position, if not his policies, the coup was clearly bound to fail.
In the aftermath, the government has arrested thousands of soldiers and sacked more than 2,700 judges. This has raised suspicions that Mr Erdogan intends to use this opportunity to silence his critics. If so, that would be a mistake and a profound misreading of why he was so strongly supported.
The political parties that backed him and the thousands of individuals who took to the streets against the plotters were motivated principally by a desire to support Turkey’s democracy. They turned out in support of the still-developing democratic tradition – hoping that orderly transfers of power by the ballot box would, indeed, become solidly entrenched; and for the institutions of government. Mr Erdogan would be wise to understand that they are larger and more important than any individual politician.
This is a crucial test for Mr Erdogan. Yes, he has weathered a coup – something that has brought down Turkish leaders before him. And he has proved he has immense support among the Turkish people. But support for him is predicated on respect for the institutions of the country. Should he see this as an opportunity to clamp down on critics in a manner deemed imprudent, it would serve only to fray the very virtues that people came out to support and defend in those early hours of Saturday.
The attempted coup, however amateurish, was a real test. Dealing with it will be an even harder one.
