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.

Tags: Military coups in Turkey | Turkey |