Supporters of Turkey's President Erdoğan protest against the failed coup in Turkey (Credit: PA Images)
More than 160 people are dead and 1,440 wounded as part of the attempt to overthrow Turkey's president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. News broke yesterday of the attempted coup, with a faction of Turkey's military claiming it had taken control of the country.
The Turkish government has reported that the attempted coup is now over. However, no sooner had the coup been quashed than conspiracy theorists were taking to social media to express scepticism at official reports that the coup had been led by members of the military.
Most prominent was the suggestion that the coup had been staged in order to consolidate Erdoğan's power.
One Turkish source spoke to TheLADbible about why some people felt the coup had been staged, saying: "Some people think that the coup is a game played by the government to make Erdoğan more powerful, so he can become president easily.
"But personally I don't think this is a game. 160 people have died - this this can't be a game. The cost has been too high to have been staged by the president.
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"But there's no doubting that Erdoğan would like to change the regime. His supporters want to change the political system so it's more similar to the USA, which would make Erdoğan more powerful and the country's only leader as a president.
"But there are lots of people who are against this because people don't want one man to be so powerful. Now these people think that the government organised the coup to show our current system is weak, and to give Erdoğan more power."
Erdoğan has come under criticism for being perceived by many as a hard-line Islamist, wishing to restrict freedom within the country. Social media users have compared the coup attempt to the Reichstag fire - the 1933 arson attack on the German parliament building - which Hitler used as an excuse to suspend civil liberties and order mass arrests of his opponents, the Independent reported.
One social media user spoke to TheLADbible, saying that he was sure the coup had been instigated by Erdoğan. The source stated: "He's the only one benefiting: [he] has started culling military [and] judiciary, so he knew beforehand who to get rid of.
"[He] has been trying for years to reinforce his power by all means and has stated before [that] democracy is nothing, and that moderate Islam is an insult to Islam.
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"So the coup will consolidate his power and falls neatly in his ambition to recreate the 'Ottoman' caliphate."
And Ryan Heath, the senior EU correspondent at Politico, shared comments from a 'Turkish source', who called the events of Friday night a 'fake coup', which would help a 'fake democracy warrior'.
The source said: "Probably we'll see an early election [in] which he'll try to guarantee an unbelievable majority of the votes. And this will probably guarantee another 10-15 years of authoritarian, elected dictatorship.
But Erdoğan has blamed his rival, Fethullah Gulen, for the attempted uprising. Muslim cleric Gulen is generally regarded as promoting a progressive form of Islam and is often used as a scapegoat by Erdoğan when unrest takes place.
Speaking about the cause of the coup attempt, the Turkish president addressed Gulen directly, who is currently in self-exile in Pennsylvania: "The betrayal you have shown to this nation and to this community, that's enough. If you have the courage, come back to your country. If you can. You will not have the means to turn this country into a mess from where you are."
"We'll possibly see a change in the constitution for worse, which secularism will be gone and Islamist motifs will be in!"
News broke yesterday of the attempted coup, with a faction of Turkey's military claiming it had taken control of the country. The group also took control of state TV and the airport was in lock-down. Furthermore, the Bosporus Bridge and Sultan Mehmet Bridge were also held by the military faction initiating the coup.
Since then, reports have suggested that the people in general were strongly against the uprising and lined the streets to protest. This quickly escalated into violence, with military personnel beaten and some of the military involved in the attempted uprising also opening fire on civilians.
Whatever your view on the coup, if you are in Turkey at the moment, I hope you stay safe.
Words by James Dawson
Featured Image Credit:Topics: World News, Turkey, Politics
