On July 15, 2016, rogue Turkish troops simultaneously moved into İstanbul and the capital of Ankara in a bid to overthrow President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who had been in power since 2003.
It was over in less than 24 hours, but the fighting claimed at least 250 lives and injured another 2,000. It became a turning point in modern Turkey’s history that cemented Erdoğan’s grip on power.
Deadly fighting
On the evening of July 15, fighter jets and helicopters began flying over İstanbul and Ankara, with the rebels firing on the Turkish Parliament and blocking access to İstanbul’s Taksim Square.
Fighting broke out as people flooded the streets to stop the coup following an appeal by Erdoğan, with tanks and troops firing on crowds and members of the mob turning their anger on the rebel soldiers, kicking, punching and attacking them with knives.
Agence France-Presse photographers in İstanbul saw people shot dead but also witnessed soldiers being lynched by the mob, with their images capturing a sense of civil war.
It was the fifth time since World War II that Turkish troops had taken to the streets to change the course of their country.
Friend turned archenemy
Erdoğan immediately blamed the attempted coup on Fethullah Gülen, a Muslim cleric and former ally turned archenemy who had been living in self-imposed exile in the United States since 1999.
Gülen, who died in 2024, categorically denied any involvement.
For years his followers held powerful positions in Turkish society, including in the media, the police and the judiciary, with the support of Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), before the two sides had a falling out.
As the coup was playing out, Erdoğan himself described the situation as “a gift,” recalled Paris-based political scientist Ahmet İnsel.
“Ultimately, this current move is a great gift from God because it will lead to the purging of our armed forces,” Erdoğan said after arriving in İstanbul early on July 16.
A week later, he spoke of the need to “rid our state institutions of this cancer.”
Erdoğan’s counterattack
After the coup was suppressed, Erdoğan imposed a state of emergency that lasted two years and involved an extensive purge of the military, the police, the media, the judiciary, the education system and the diplomatic corps.
Since 2016 some 390,000 people have been detained on terrorism or coup-related charges, with nearly 5,000 convicted of direct links to the putsch and close to 127,000 convicted of ties to the Gülen movement, according to the Stockholm Center for Freedom, an advocacy group, citing figures from official sources and the press.
More than 127,000 people were dismissed from the public sector, including over 4,000 judges and prosecutors, it said.
“Erdoğan had already demonstrated his authoritarian tendencies before that,” İnsel said.
The coup, he explained, “sped up the shift from a parliamentary regime to a hyper-presidential regime with all powers concentrated in the head of state,” effectively bringing about the “Putinization” of Turkey, in reference to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
© Agence France-Presse