I was reading a thread on Arfcom where some folks were mentioning that this may have been a staged revolt by Erdogan designed to give him the justification to clamp down even harder. It certainly wouldn't be the first time in history and I wouldn't put it past him for a second.koine2002 wrote:Of course, it's because of the threat of folks like Erdogan that I don't view democracy as absolute an end in and of itself. Liberty and the rule of law are the ends. Democratic processes need to be seen as the handmaiden of those two. When it becomes a threat to those, democracy needs to be put back in its place. Our system here is not designed to protect democracy. It's designed to protect liberty from democratically elected leaders who don't care much for liberty of their opposition or liberty in general. That's why I'm okay with the fact that Turkish army has acted in the past. That said, it appears this was not an official military coup in Turkey and it was carried out outside the normal lines of authority. Even the opposition was opposed to this. That tells me that this was something unjustified at best and staged at worst.
Whatever the situation really is, I trust our administration to do exactly the dumbest thing in response.