Explanatory blog post 1(W6)

Text: Turkey: How the Coup Failed 

This article is set out to analyze the events of what almost happened over a decade ago on 15 July 2016 in the failed coup in Turkey, but this hasn’t been the first time as some see it is the turkeys Army’s and go hand in hand Kemalism like all other coup’s in the past. The article covered the events of the 15th of July and the night. 

Looking at the AKP one of the reasons or cause of the coup was that "Thanks to its authoritarian side, the AKP has amassed extensive access to public and private resources and control over both conventional and social media.” This would give some context on why some Mid-level members Armed forces attempted coup. This also could be seen AKP trying to control the narrative which can been as power ground.  

An historical reason which links into the earlier mention Kemalism is that in the 2007 election “AKP teamed with the Islamist network” which could have been seen as a AKP trying to undermine Turkey's secular system which could have been a compounding issue and a historical cause to which could lead to some the officers staging a failed coup d'état. Some would argue that the military have a role in the Turkish political system as they are protecting secularism which was set out after the Turkey became a republic. This is also backed by how some of the party founded off Islamic beliefs back in mid-august 2001 looking at some of its founders. “Founded by former members of the Islamist National Outlook movement, the AKP came to power”. This ties back again into the idea of this party going against Kemalism which could be considered as an historic reason to why a coup was attempted. 

With Turkeys histories with coup d'état ranger to current date not including 2016 total being six this would be a factor and strong influence.” These key Kemalist players were the military and the judiciary, whose impact had been institutionalized following the 1960 coup via their claim to embody the legacy of the Republic of Turkey’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.”. this would have given those mid-level offices some bases off which they have seen that they even being unelected had the duty to affect with force the politics of Turkey. What also is key factor to that point is that with the 1962 and 1963 coup that where successful. The coups that had taken place would also only give the putschists more influence when they attempted their coup as the public could have seen this as a legitimate political action taken by the armed forces.  

AKP can and how it operates can be seen as competitive authoritarianism. “As the AKP consolidated its power and built a competitive authoritarian regime”. The statement shows that AKP in the article is seen as competitive authoritarian but has pointed out that AKP did do a power grab which is linked into that idea. This links into failed coup because this could be a political cause in why the military tried a coup as they saw the government try to take away checks and balances. “it learned to add the weight of the robust Turkish state to its own weight as a strong party in order to silence or coopt opposition” this would be another cause of why the coup was tried as that is evidence of AKP trying to Undermind the democratic process of politics in turkey. One example that shows that the actions are taken by AKP show them as a competitive regime is “. Competitive authoritarian regimes always abuse state institutions for partisan goals. While the coup was underway, the government relied heavily on the organizational apparatus”.  this points out that AKP was using institutions in ways they weren’t set up for and that they leaned on them a lot. That example sheds light on how AKP will use the government for the goals of the party not the goals of the people.  

What was the response to this failed coup and how did the people react to it and how did this cause the coup to fail? is because AKP how it was able to get its supports to mobilize when the coup was happing. “The coup failed because the putschists first lost the media battle”. Which the AKP had already taken control of state and private media. This would have given AKP the ability to spin the story as they see fit to keep them in power but also would have been able to use this to inform their supporters and get the message out to their supporters and mobilize them. “Never before had a Turkish coup attempt (even the failed ones) met with such resistance. Civilians standing before the tanks”. This shows that AKP could use their supporters to help stop the coup and stay in power which would only legitimize their actions this is an especially important fact. 

This article and its points have listed that the actions before the failed coup that there were signs of competitive authoritarian before and during which where key factors to the coup but also that they did actions like control the media to support themselves and in the context of the turkeys system is that didn't conform to kemalism which outlines Turkeys secularism which was another important reason and showed that there was an erosion of Turkeys democratic systems.