"Turkey’s Military Disconnect" Topic

"In an April 2013 interview with The Atlantic, Jordanian King Abdullah II told the world how he really felt about Recep Tayyip Erdogan, then the prime minister of Turkey. According to Abdullah, "Erdogan once said that democracy for him is a bus ride … ‘Once I get to my stop, I'm getting off.'" Indeed, to many it has seemed that Erdogan is steadily and inevitably consolidating power, turning a secular democracy into a theocratic autocracy with himself at its center.

Recent events have cast that assumption into doubt. On July 16, with Erdogan away at a coastal resort, tanks rolled through the streets of Istanbul and gunfire echoed in government buildings in Ankara. A military statement claimed that Turkey's armed forces had taken control "to reinstall the constitutional order, democracy, human rights and freedoms, to ensure that the rule of law once again reigns in the country." After the attempted coup was crushed within a day, Erdogan and other officials accused Fethullah Gulen, an imam living in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania, of being the mastermind behind the rebellion. While it is unclear to what extent supporters of the so-called Gulenist Movement were involved, the uprising is likely to have major repercussions for Turkish domestic and foreign policy, as well as the country's relationship with the United States. As a result, understanding what motivated part of the military to rise against its elected government could provide insight into what Turkey's future policies might look like…"
More here
link

Amicalement
Armand

With all of his negatives, why did the people defend him?