Claiming a coup attempt as staged looks more like a conspiracy theory to me. Luckily, that was dismissed by the head of German intelligence[0].

> “The coup attempt was not initiated by the government. Before July 15 the government had already started a big purge so parts of the military thought they should do a coup quickly before it hit them too,” Kahl said.

In [0], Kahl dismisses the possibility that the Gülen movement did the coup. However, he fails to mention which other group in the military "feared" the purge and was big enough to attempt a coup.

If you combine that with: - the 2010-11 purge of nationalist-modernists from the army was directed by Gülen people[1][2] (and supported by Erdoğan[3]) - all 4 military schools were totally infiltrated by Gülenists[4]

you would see that the Gülen movement was certainly in the army, and after the purge of nationalist-modernists, there was no other group in the Turkish army big enough and pissed off with the govt enough to attempt a coup. The testimonies of suspected army officers[5] mentioning Gülen is no surprise at this point.

When I see the purge of Gülen supporters to be generalized to Erdoğan opponents, something goes off in my mind. People who are against both Erdoğan and Gülen weren't targeted for that purge. If anything, they were trusted more than before, because many pro-Erdoğan people could get into state positions using Gülen connections pre-2013.

A good guestion to ask here is why did Erdoğan facilitate Gülen's infiltration of the institutions in the first place. As I mentioned above, it was because he feared a Kemalist coup or party shutdown. So, if Turkey didn't have the habit of "fending off populists with coups", none of this would happen. Or maybe it would?

All in all, what I'm trying to say is that the whole issue is more complex than "autocrat bad punish opponents".

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[0]: https://www.rt.com/news/381290-bnd-gulen-erdogan-coup/

[1]: http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/gundem/son-dakika-ergenekon-davas...

[2]: https://www.aa.com.tr/tr/15-temmuz-darbe-girisimi/balyoz-dav...

[3]: http://www.radikal.com.tr/politika/erdogan-evet-savciyiz-888...

[4]: https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/08/turkey-gu...

[5]: https://t24.com.tr/haber/15-temmuz-darbe-girisimi-ifadeleri-...