Idlib escalation shelves talk of coup in Turkey
The survival of the Erdogan government requires periodic activation of coup rhetoric.
If every country has a topic of conversation that never gets old, for Turkey that must be talk of a coup. In early January, amid news of domestic economic troubles and the Syrian and Libyan wars, talk of a new coup emerged from the Ankara rumor mill.
The chatter grew with tweets and op-eds from supporters of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), so much so that on Feb. 15, journalists asked President Recep Tayyip Erdogan about the possibility of a coup against him. Erdogan focused on how the public would react if a coup was initiated. Referring to the coup attempt of July 15, 2016, he said, “Our nation gave them the proper answer on July 15. People gained significant experience about this. So, this time around they would not think twice whether to go out or not. I am confident that my people would take to the streets with whatever they have in their hands.”
