Mostafa Minawi is as Assistant Professor of History and Director of the Ottoman and Turkish Studies Initiative (OTSI) at Cornell University. Minawi has just returned from Istanbul where he experienced the city’s fallout from the coup.
Minawi says “regardless of how it ends, the (failed) attempt at a coup is terrible for the political future of Turkey.”
“The failed coup is a gift for President Erdoğan, giving him all the justification he needs to implement further clamp down measures against any dissenters, in the process sinking Turkey deeper into authoritarianism.
“The failed coup will make the narrowing range of acceptable political opposition in Turkey, even narrower. Much as we are witnessing in other parts of the world, aggressive populist politics is on the rise in Turkey.
“The failed coup allowed for a public demonstration of the collective strength of Erdoğan supporters. The coup provided Erdoğan with the perfect amount of political theater, complete with war plane fly overs, people jumping on tanks, the parliament bombed during an emergency session against the ongoing coup, and Erdoğan giving a come-back speech with the crowds shouting “long live the president.”
“The failed coup will likely embolden the conservative majority, leaving very little room for personal freedoms of those that do not squarely fit into the Turkish majority, namely Kurds, non-Muslims, intellectuals, leftists, artists, LGBTQ, etc.”
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