Astonishing questions about the failed coup attempt in Turkey


Date posted: July 23, 2016

Many people watching the stunning events in Turkey believe that the coup attempt was nothing but a pure ‘theater.’

The leader of the coup was a pro-Erdogan General Mehmet Disli, brother of AKP deputy Saban Disli, who defines himself as Erdogan’s confidante.

The poorly-planned coup attempt has started with the capture of Istanbul’s Bosporus Bridge. Only one-way traffic was blocked. The other, was wide open.

Unlike all other military coups in Turkish history, this attempt was initiated at 10 pm when all the country was still awake. Why?

Why did the coup-plotters not attempt to silence the pro-government media and instead took over the least-watched state TV broadcaster, TRT, allowing their targets to regroup and use more popular channels?

Why did they not cut off the Internet connection and let the current government to use social media effectively to challenge the coup attempt?

Often-blocked Internet communication was permitted this time

Why was no single politician, including the president and the prime minister were taken into custody? Why did the coup plotters not even to capture any politicians?

President Erdogan was neither in Ankara nor Istanbul but instead spending his vacation in the Mediterranean seaside. Why did the coup plotters not move to detain him while he was there?

In fact, 25 soldiers in helicopters descended on a hotel in Marmaris on ropes, shooting, just after Erdogan had left in an apparent attempt to seize him. Why did they wait for two hours to go after him?

Erdogan could safely fly from Marmaris to Istanbul over an hour, while rebel F-16 planes were patrolling the skies and flying low over cities.

Calling the coup attempt on his regime a “gift from the God” President Erdogan has already dismissed more than 60,000 civil servants, 6,000 judges and military officers, 1577 faculty deans from universities.

Critics claim that this failed coup attempt was simply a pretext to legitimize arbitrary authoritarian practices, eliminate all the dissent while filling the state apparatus with staunch supporters, and start an ethnic cleansing against sympathizers of the Gulen movement and Alawites.


Related News

Turkey’s ‘terrorists’ active in India. But who are they really?

Interestingly, Gulen was once an important ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and going by his ideology, comes across as a more moderate figure than Erdogan, who has been pushing an Islamic ideology which has little space for secularism. Till very recently, Erdogan’s policy being criticised for allegedly allowing Turkish territory to be used by terrorists.

The real problem is not an AK Party-Gülen movement conflict

When the problem is not properly diagnosed, the treatment can’t be on the mark. Let us speak openly: while the problem may appear to be a struggle between children from the same neighborhood — the AK Party and the Gülen movement — the real problem is in fact one that concerns all of society: democracy and justice. And the only solution is to return to real democracy and the principles of the rule of law.

Today’s Zaman praised for quality coverage on 6th anniversary

AYDIN ALBAYRAK/ALI ASLAN KILIÇ/SİNEM CENGİZ ANKARA On the occasion of the sixth anniversary of Today’s Zaman, senior leaders of the governing and opposition parties as well as Ankara-based foreign diplomats expressed their appreciation for the daily as an important source of information on Turkey. They described Today’s Zaman, the largest-circulated English daily in Turkey, as […]

Koza gold firm starts up company in UK

The gold company, whose owner Akın İpek is known to have close ties with Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen’s Hizmet (Service) movement, has been hit by the suspension of several of its mining fields.

Former AK Party minister praises Turkish Olympiads

Former interior minister and Justice and Development Party (AK Party) İstanbul deputy Abdulkadir Aksu said on Thursday that Turkish schools abroad serve as islands of peace, adding that he is looking forward to this year’s Turkish Language Olympiads.

Why is Turkey’s Erdogan persecuting the Gulen movement?

Erdogan’s government has made Gulenists “the enemy you ascribe to everything that goes poorly in Turkey,” according to Henri Barkey, a fellow for Middle East studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Latest News

Turkish inmate jailed over alleged Gülen links dies of heart attack in prison

Message of Condemnation and Condolences for Mass Shooting at Bondi Beach, Sydney

Media executive Hidayet Karaca marks 11th year in prison over alleged links to Gülen movement

ECtHR faults Turkey for convictions of 2,420 applicants over Gülen links in follow-up to 2023 judgment

New Book Exposes Erdoğan’s “Civil Death Project” Targeting the Hizmet Movement

European Human Rights Treaty Faces Legal And Political Tests

ECtHR rejects Turkey’s appeal, clearing path for retrials in Gülen-linked cases

Erdoğan’s Civil Death Project’ : The ‘politicide’ spanning more than a decade

Fethullah Gülen’s Vision and the Purpose of Hizmet

In Case You Missed It

What a shame, what a pity

Trustees seize control of schools in government-led move

Swoboda accuses Erdoğan of using Hizmet movement as a pretext

Turkish families cope with aftermath of failed coup

Plan to finish off the Hizmet movement

On front lines of fight for press freedom in Turkey

Report: White House denies remarks attributed to Obama about Gülen

Copyright 2026 Hizmet News