After the coup attempt, Turkey's success story continues.

• Author: Kalin, Ibrahim
• Position: COMMENTARY

On 15 July 2016, tanks rolled down the streets of Istanbul to block traffic flowing from Asia to Europe over the Bosporus Bridge. The event, which took place during the Friday rush hour, was quite odd. Having witnessed an upsurge in PKK and ISIS violence in recent months, many people reasoned that the authorities had probably been tipped off about an impending terror attack and were taking precautions. Others argued on social media that an aircraft could have been hijacked by terrorists. Hardly anyone thought, let alone said out loud, that a coup d'etat was underway. When the troops stationed on the bridge started telling by-passers to go home and military jets began flying low over the Turkish capital Ankara, it became clear to everyone that a group of soldiers were attempting to overthrow the democratically elected government.

According to initially available information, many, if not all, coup plotters had been identified by the Turkish intelligence as members of FETO, a Pennsylvania-based terrorist organization led by Fetullah Gulen. Their names were shared with the Military Chief of Staff, whose office intended to expel the individuals in question from the military in the upcoming annual Supreme Military Council (YAs) meeting in August 2016. Based on the same information, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan appeared on national television to identify the perpetrators as a group of Gulenist soldiers who were acting outside the chain of command and urged the people to take to the streets and resist the power grab. Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, cabinet ministers, opposition leaders and military commanders made similar statements to defy the would-be junta, express their support for the elected government and pledged to defend Turkish democracy. By midnight, pro-coup soldiers had stormed TRT, the public broadcaster, to hold an anchorwoman at gunpoint and force her to read a statement on air purporting to indicate that the Armed Forces had overthrown the government, suspended the Constitution and imposed martial law. The coup plotters in fact represented only a small minority within NATO's second largest army, however they would proceed to seize control of airports, target strategic government buildings and attempt to assassinate the president.

Ahead of the coup attempt, known members of Fetullah Gulens terrorist organization had publicly argued that the military could seize power with no resistance. They failed to calculate that overthrowing an elected government, in reality, is no walk in the park. Hearing the president's call, hundreds of thousands of ordinary citizens risked their lives to defeat the coup plotters through peaceful resistance for the first time in the nation's history. The Turkish people's refusal to concede power to terrorists in uniform not only marked a watershed moment in Turkey's political history but also inspired...