On July 15, 2016 a coup d’état (blow of state) took place in Turkey. The failed coup against Erdogan killed around 500 and at least 20,000 soldiers were arrested.Five years later, at the trial of the putschists, everything is still unclear. Was it a coup d’etat piloted exclusively by the former ally of Erdogan, Fethullah Gülen who became his rival, Fethullah Gülen or as explained by researcher Sümbül Kaya, political scientist and sociologist at the French Institute of Anatolian Studies (IFEA), specialist of the Turkish army “I think that the participation in the putsch was broader than the organization of Gülen. There were also high-ranking officers who were not Gülenists, but who took part, for opportunist or political reasons, for lack of proximity to Erdogan’s ideology and because of the way the authorities conducted things in that period. “Either way, the Turkish army is used to coups d’etat, one per decade in the second half of the 20th century: 1960, 1971, 1980, 1997.The army is less and less secular, with visits by government ministers on religious holidays or the fact that religious high school graduates are now allowed to join military training and some religious restrictions have been lifted.All of this is contrary to what Erdogan’s party, the AKP, promised in the 2002 elections. The army is now in Erdogan’s hands.13,000 people have been hired in the month following the coup. They are people who are ideologically close to the AKP and this loyalty earns them express promotions.
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