Doesn't seem like they had any support from anyone though?
Obama, Kurdish groups, all the political parties, the police, the media, Mangal 2 in Dalston - all of them spoke out against it.
Looks like the foot soldiers were pretty reluctant too - brave citizens sitting on tanks, taking back the airport and taking weapons off soldiers.
Wel... Kerry called for 'peace, stability and unity' in his first statements... far from the forceful condemnation you would expect. The majority of domestic political statements came after Erdogan had triumphed.
As for the brave citizens... certainly it does require bravery to stand up to tanks, but this was essentially a sequel to Gezi park, with AKP thugs coming onto the streets ready for a scrap once the call from their leader came out. We've seen soldiers lynched and throats cut, violent demonstrations from AKP supporters all over Turkey and even in Germany... attacks on HDP and opposition offices.
Apparently this was pushed forward due to some expected arrests and an upcoming military reshuffle. Erdogan has emerged as victor, firing 3000 judges, purging the military, establishing even stronger control of the media.
Strange seeing it all roll out in real time. Hundreds of streams on periscope and FB. I was chatting to my mate Naphta on whatsapp throughout - he lives in Istanbul at the moment and it all unfolded right in front of him.
The Deep state needs to modernise. You cant just take over state TV and a few bridges and expect to control the population, especially after the rise of AKP. Whatever about the rights and wrongs of coups, the military has stepped in a few times to preserve Turkish secularism and (paradoxically) democracy, which, it must be said, is seriously threatened by Erdogan and his increasing authoritarianism.