It appears that the coup against Turkish President Erdogan has failed:
Defiant Turkish civilians reclaimed the country from their own military after helping to end a coup by the army to overthrow President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who called on people to remain on the streets today over fears over a fresh uprising.
Ordinary Turks confronted rifle-wielding soldiers, climbed atop tanks and laid in front of military vehicles in an effort to take back control of the country, ignoring a curfew issued by coup plotters designed to allow the army to bring down the government unopposed.
President Erdogan called on people to take to the streets, leading to reports of groups of soldiers surrendering at several key locations in Ankara and Istanbul, including Bosphorus Bridge, where 100 rebels laid down their arms and submitted themselves to advancing civilians and police officers.
There were unconfirmed reports of one soldier being beheaded by a mob of civilians on the bridge after a video surfaced online showing a crowd launching an attack on the downed man. However in the video the man is still alive and shows no beheading, though it is unknown if this happened after the footage ended.
Why the coup? As World Net Daily notes:
Since the Western-oriented government of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was founded in the 1920s after the demise of the Ottoman Empire, the Turkish military has intervened whenever the regime strays from its roots.
Declaring Friday that it has taken over the government of Islamist President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the military once again appears to be serving as a guardian of Kemalist secularism, says Middle East and Islam expert Robert Spencer.
“If the military now is trying to forestall Erdogan’s neo-Ottoman plans to restore Islamic rule in Turkey, then this coup could be an extremely positive development,” Spencer wrote on his Jihad Watch site. “If it succeeds, that is. And yes, that is two big if’s.”
Through the state-run TV channel TRT, the military has declared it has taken over “the entire management of the country to restore rule of law.”
The failure of this coup is a potential landmark moment. In the wake of the military’s failure to restore secular order, Erdogan has a choice. He can consolidate power and continue to take the country in a more Islamic direction, destroying the secular balance that has allowed the country to prosper, or, he can accept that a great number of Turks are wildly unsatisfied with the direction of the nation, and attempt to change things.
AAN Staff
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