At this hour, it appears that the military coup in Turkey has failed with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan back on Turkish soil.
If Erdogan is restored to power then Turkish secularism is truly dead and so is the military that enforced it. When Islamists would try to stray from the secularism the Ataturk, the military would overthrow the government with a new secular, civilian authority back in place within a few months. The Turkish military was a bulwark against Islamism.
But since Erdogan came to power in 2003, the military has been tremendously weakened and is now full of Islamists. Perhaps the coup leaders saw an opportunity with Turkey’s recent economic downturn and surge in terrorist activity. However, Erdogan has a friend in President Obama (and for that matter Hillary Clinton) who quickly expressed support for Erdogan’s “democratically elected government.” Mind you this “democratically elected government” routinely imprisons journalists and other dissidents who see fit to criticize it. It’s interesting how Erdogan utilized social media to rally his supporters, a medium he has frequently restricted, if not outright banned.
If the military coup had succeeded it would have set the stage for the election of a democratic, secular government which is genuinely pro-American and anti-ISIS. With Erdogan back in power Turkey will be on the road to tyranny and the fight against ISIS will get that much more difficult.
