Turkish men in traditional costumes on stage at the Democracy and Martyrs' Rally for over a million in Istanbul, Sunday, Aug. 7, 2016. Emrah Gurel / Press Association. All rights reserved.Coup attempts – successful or not – are not rare in the history of the Turkish Republic. But the failed July 15 coup attempt stands out as in many ways, unprecedented. So do the developments in its aftermath, particularly the 3-month long state of emergency declared on July 20 and the changes brought about through state of emergency decrees. This included the substantial institutional restructuring of the military and the closing of hundreds of private media, health, education and charity orgazinzations linked to the Gulen movement (which is accused of being behind the coup plot), as well as massive purges and detentions from military and civilian public institutions.
As of the end of July, the number of civil servants that have been sacked has reached close to 70,000. The largest share of the purges is from the Ministry of Education (almost 43,000) but there seems to be no sector of bureaucracy left untouched, from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to Finance, to public universities, police forces and the judiciary. Aside from the purges, more than 15,000 people (two thirds of whom are military personnel) were detained and over 8,000 of those were arrested in relation to the coup attempt.
The avalanche of developments in the three weeks following July 15 has been so overwhelming and the need to keep track of the institutional restructuring and the threat of authoritarian restoration under the now victorious AKP government so great, that the dynamics of the actual coup attempt itself might soon become overshadowed. However, the developments of the night of July 15 and July 16 hold keys to understanding the changing nature of state-society relations in Turkey.
