Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan was slowly turning a secular democracy into an Islamic dictatorship. His use of force against all detractors was inevitably going to run up against the Turkish military who have long been the guardians of secularism.

While I am not in favour of military coups, this time I believe it was necessary.

http://www.smh.com.au/world/turkish-military-coup-president-recep-tayyip-erdogan-used-brute-force-against-his-people-20160715-gq72bw.html

Have the Turkish military long been the guardians of secularism Shadow Minister?
I would suggest it is the usual power struggles between one group over another, as happens in many places in the world.

Mind you, if what you say is true, we could use those Turkish uniformed guys here, to keep that nasty Sharia law at bay?

SM,

There is some conjecture that the coup was staged - or at least a weak attempt was allowed to proceed in order for Erdogan to further suspend civil liberties.

"Social media users have compared the coup attempt in which more than 160 people are thought to have died to the Reichstag fire – the 1933 arson attack on the German parliament building which Hitler used as an excuse to suspend civil liberties and order mass arrests of his opponents.

President Erdogan reportedly told supporters at Istanbul’s international airport that the coup attempt was the work of the movement led by the exiled preacher Fethullah Gulen, which he denounced as “an armed terrorist organisation”.

He was quoted as calling the attempted coup "a gift from God," reportedly saying it would help cleanse the military of "members of the gang” who would “pay a heavy price for their treason”.

This immediately led many to fear that President Erdogan, who has previously been accused of persecuting critics, will use the coup as an excuse to further crack down on his opponents. Such fears are likely to be stoked by Turkish TV reports that 2,745 judges have been removed from their offices following the coup attempt.

Some observers have even begun specualting that the coup was stage-managed to give Mr Erdogan an opportunity to purge the military of opponents and increase his grip on Turkey."

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/turkey-coup-conspiracy-theory-erdogan-military-gift-from-god-soldiers-istanbul-a7140516.html

"While I am not in favour of military coups, this time I believe it was necessary" Shadow and the deaths of 160 people, just a bit of collateral damage, as the rabid right like to call it.
Here is a list of 35 US backed operations in foreign countries since WWII, please tell me which ones you approve of, and the ones you don't.

http://www.salon.com/2014/03/08/35_countries_the_u_s_has_backed_international_crime_partner/

The "coup" had a hollow ring from the start, and gave rise to the oxymoron of "Islamic democracy" over secular (the only kind of) democracy. "God is great" was the chant of the crowd.

Erdogan is pushing Turkey towards the Iranian model, where clerics will feature in the running of government.

I can't say I'm too fond of Erdogan.
He seems way to authoritarian and hard line for me.
It wouldn't have bothered me if they'd gotten rid of him but the question arises what sort of ruler is he being replaced with.
Did Turkey and the world trade up or down?

Hey Poirot,
Thanks for posting that article.
I wouldn't discount the idea that Erdogan knew about the coup and allowed it to happen in order for his government to capitalise on it.
Also, it seems like a red flag that he has targeted those judges, like he may have wanted to do it anyway and used the coup as an excuse to do so.
He seems like the kind of guy that might do that and get away with it with the belief that he thinks he's smarter and more powerful than everyone else.

Hey Paul1405,
I oppose all the instances where a US government has covertly overthrown a democratically elected government but that's somewhat different to a country's military removing it's political leader.
So long as the coup hasn't been co-opted by a foreign entity; it would really depend on whether the military was removing a bad guy or installing one, to determine whether or not it was a good or bad thing.