The World’s Reaction to the Failed Coup in Turkey

 
The world scrambled to make sense of last week’s failed coup in Turkey. The speed with which the Friday night plot unraveled meant that by Saturday outsiders were already tempering condemnation of the putsch with concern for the democratic institutions still standing.
 
Typical was U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry whose prompt support for the democratically elected government turned into a diplomatically-worded warning. He expressed hope that “we can work in a constructive way that prevents backsliding” as the Turkish government began a purge of thousands teachers, university deans, soldiers and police officers. This was echoed in Brussels. Federica Mogherini, the E.U.’s foreign policy chief, admonished Turkey for threatening to hang the perpetrators. She did so by dangling an increasingly elusive E.U. membership: “No country can become a partner state if it introduces the death penalty. That is key.”
 
International anxiety about Turkey’s crackdown grew after President Erdogan’s announcement Wednesday of a three-month state of emergency. While Erdogan claimed that democracy and human rights would not be infringed, the new status allows the government to enact emergency laws by fiat, hold detainees for longer periods without a trial, and punish members of the press. Turkey’s adherence to the European Convention on Human Rights was also suspended for the duration of the state of emergency, prompting greater concern for the curtailment of rights—Amnesty International’s lead Turkey researcher, Andrew Gardner, called the decision a “chilling harbinger of what is to come.” (The Guardian, Bloomberg, The New York Times, VOX, BBC, The Independent, Politico)
 
 
Donald Trump, now officially the Republican nominee for U.S. president, weighed in on the tumult in Turkey, albeit with lack of clarity: “They came out on the streets, and the army types didn’t want to drive over them like they did in Tiananmen Square when they sort of drived them over, and that was the end of that. Right? People said, I’m not going to drive over people. The people came out of their homes, and they were not in favor of what the military was doing.” Unlike Kerry, Trump avoided commenting on the Turkish government’s crackdown against suspected coup-plotters, telling the New York Times, “I think it’s very hard for us to get involved in other countries when we don’t know what we are doing and we can’t see straight in our own country.” (The New York Times)
 
But the U.S. couldn’t avoid getting sucked into the post-coup news cycle. Not only does Fethullah Gulen (whom President Erdogan blames for the insurrection) live in Pennsylvania, but the Incirlik Airbase, used by American and coalition forces for operations in Syria, was allegedly one of the bases used by the rebel Turkish officers. Power had been cut to the base over the weekend, and U.S. officials said they are creating contingency plans in case American operations need a new home. Concern is amplified by the fact that the U.S. stores an undisclosed amount of nuclear warheads at Incirlik. (CNN, Reuters, New Yorker)
 
The plethora of op-eds and commentary in the international press underlined that events did little to restore Turkey or its president’s pre-coup tarnished image.
 
Steven A. Cook, in The Atlantic: “Erdogan’s widening purge and crackdown are just the logical conclusion of a story that has been unfolding for the better part of a decade. Turkey’s democracy has not been lost—there was no democracy for it to lose.”
 
The Telegraph editorial board: “The greater fear, though, is that Mr Erdogan’s hardline response will simply create further unrest, thereby causing Turkey to join the long list of Muslim countries afflicted by civil war as a result of authoritarian policies pursued by ruling elites.”
 
Lisel Hintz, in the Washington Post: “As has largely been the case thus far in Turkey, unchecked vigilantism can generate the kinds of atrocious outcomes scholars call the ‘dark side’ of civil society.”
 
Eric Schlosser, in The New Yorker: “Although Incirlik probably has more nuclear weapons than any other NATO base, it does not have any American or Turkish aircraft equipped to deliver them. The bombs simply sit at the base, underground, waiting to be used or misused.”
 
Mustafa Akyol, in The New York Times endorsed the government’s accusation that the movement led by Fethullah Gülen was to blame but even he hedged his support.  “Of course, the truth can come out only in a fair trial. Unfortunately, Turkey is not good at those — especially given Mr. Erdogan’s control over the judiciary and the ferocious polarization in the country today.”