The coup attempt that set Turkey on the path to authoritarianism

Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen at his compound in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania, the day after an attempted coup against the government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on July 16, 2016. Gulen, who died this week in self-imposed exile in The United States and Erdogan began as allies to forge an Islamist society in Turkey, but a power struggle later led to bloodshed and authoritarian repression. [Charles Mostoller/The New York Times]

It was a spectacular falling out.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan rose to power largely thanks to the support of a preacher and fellow Islamist, Fethullah Gülen, who died this week. Gülen's millions of supporters, made up of educated and motivated Turks, helped fill the ranks of the government, as well as the media, police and courts, helping Erdogan rule the country and consolidate his power.

In the early years of Erdogan's tenure as prime minister, Gülen's supporters were the government's most prominent spokespersons in Turkey and abroad. But a decade later, Erdogan had come to resent Gülen and differences over policy emerged.

The first break came in 2013 when Gülenist prosecutors launched corruption charges against members of Erdogan's government and even members of his family.

Erdogan accused Gülen of leading a judicial coup and moved to shut down some of his media holdings, as well as his lucrative education centers that prepared students for university entrance exams.

The rivalry turned deadly when members of a group aligned with Gülen, some visiting him in the United States, attempted a military coup in July 2016. Erdogan confronted it, bringing his supporters down to the street and securing the allegiance of the army and intelligence services. leaders who decided to stop the putschists.

He then repressed with vengeance not only those immediately involved in the coup attempt, but also the broader circles of the movement. Tens of thousands of Gülen supporters were arrested, their businesses and properties were seized, and 150,000 government employees were fired from their jobs.

The Turkish government issued an arrest warrant for Gülens and requested his extradition from the United States, where he had lived in self-imposed exile for many years in Pennsylvania.

Erdogan never managed to bring Gülen back to Türkiye. The U.S. government cited lack of evidence for not moving forward with extradition. But he managed to crush the Gulenist movement, labeling it a terrorist organization and imprisoning many prominent leaders with draconian sentences of several life sentences without the possibility of parole.

By the time of his death, Gülen had lost much of the support of his families whose loved ones were in prison and thousands of people who had been forced to flee Turkey and rebuild their lives as refugees.

The attempted coup had a profound effect on Erdogan.

He wept at the funeral of one of his closest political aides, Erol Olcok, and Olcok's 16-year-old son, who were shot and killed on the Bosphorus Bridge in Istanbul. They were among the demonstrators who blocked the advance of the troops.

Erdogan strengthened ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who had warned him of an impending coup and was quick to offer support. This led Erdogan to strike a deal to buy an S400 missile defense system from Russia, despite Turkey's NATO membership, a move that caused widespread discontent among its military alliance partners.

Its drift towards authoritarianism, which began several years earlier after the popular protests of 2013, accelerated spectacularly and led to a sharp deterioration in relations with the United States and the countries of the European Union.

Erdogan has frequently criticized Washington for failing to support him during the coup and for failing to extradite Gulen. Many of his supporters went further and accused the United States of harboring Gülen and being behind the coup attempt.

Whether through threats to himself or political opportunism, Erdogan used the coup attempt to reshape Turkey and prolong his position at the helm of Turkish politics.

In a 2017 referendum, he amended the constitution to end Turkey's parliamentary system and grant sweeping executive powers to the president, who once held a largely ceremonial position. Since then, he has won two more terms as president.

He oversaw years of massive trials against Gülen supporters, including young cadets, enlisted soldiers, teachers and others who had little or no involvement in the coup attempt and who were sentenced to long prison terms.

Evidence presented at the coup plotters' trials appeared to dispel any doubt that there was an organized plot to overthrow Erdogan, but human rights activists and government critics said the prosecution was nonetheless deeply tainted irregularities. In some cases, several hundred people were tried simultaneously.

In addition to Gülen's supporters, hundreds of Kurdish politicians, democracy activists, journalists and others, including a prominent philanthropist, have been imprisoned in Turkey in recent years in what is seen as a sweeping effort aimed at suppressing dissent. Hundreds of media outlets have been closed and government opponents rarely have access to mainstream media.

As a result, Erdogan achieved what had long been the goal of Islamists in Turkey, including his own Justice and Development Party: seizing power from the country's secular parties and expanding Islam's role in politics. Turkish society and its institutions.

Erdogan has even adopted some of the methods of his former ally Gülen. Members of Erdogan's party have frequently highlighted Gülen's past practice of seizing power by inserting his own supporters into various branches of government, commerce and the media.

In the crackdown following the coup attempt, Erdogan's government purged thousands of Gülen supporters from government ministries, schools, courts, universities, non-governmental organizations, police departments , military battalions, hospitals and banks.

Then he replaced them with his own followers.

This left Turkey deeply divided, but with a system geared towards supporting the outgoing president and his party.

Erdogan nevertheless maintained the elections. He is in his second of two presidential terms authorized by the constitution, with a term until 2028. His plans are unclear, but weeks before voters go to the polls last April to vote in local elections, the president suggested that would be his mandate. last election.

This article was originally published in The New York Times.