Aydin Inal

Last three years have left deep wounds in the psyche of the Turkish society  15 July 2106 was one of the most significant and traumatic days of modern Turkish history. On a summer Friday evening, when millions of Istanbul residents were out on the streets welcoming the weekend, a group of soldiers appeared near the bridge that connects two sides of Istanbul across the Bosphorus.  People fist could not comprehend what was happening. Most people though it was either some kind of a military exercise or the Army was responding to some sort of a terror threat. But later on soldiers were saying that it was actually a “coup”.  People were puzzled. Because Turkish army has done coups before to overthrow governments but they never started like a weekend party on a Friday night during peak hour in a city with over 15 million people. Nevertheless, there were the soldiers in their uniforms claiming to take over the government. Soon after fighter jets started flying low over th...

Last three years have left deep wounds in the psyche of the Turkish society  15 July 2106 was one of the most significant and traumatic days of modern Turkish history. On a summer Friday evening, when millions of Istanbul residents were out on the streets welcoming the weekend, a group of soldiers appeared near the bridge that connects two sides of Istanbul across the Bosphorus.  Most people were puzzled and thought it was either some kind of a military exercise or the Army was responding to some sort of a terror threat. But later on soldiers were saying that it was actually a “coup”.  Turkish army has done coups before to overthrow governments but they never started like a weekend party on a Friday night during peak hour in a city with over 15 million people.  If this was a military coup, which is supposed to be against elected government, why didn’t the soldiers rather go after government figures like the President, PM, ministers, members of the parliament...