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Erdogan should look beyond coup

The army's top general, Hulusi Akar, was reportedly taken hostage and was incommunicado.

The failed coup d'état on Saturday poses new challenges for Turkey, which has slid into further instability. The nightlong drama, in which a section of the armed forces tried to grab power, will go down in history as one of the most confused and bloody episodes in the chequered history of the country. Though Turkey has a history of military interventions, Friday night's coup attempt seemed to be a kneejerk reaction from some restless officers who wanted to overthrow the elected dispensation of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The unfolding of the drama hours later, however, made it clear that there wasn't any coordination among the top brass of the military and the takeover was an amateurish attempt. As tanks rolled on the two bridges over the Bosphorus Strait in Istanbul, it wasn't clear as to who is in command. Suspension of social media and takeover of television and radio stations were the only proof that an intervention is under way. The army's top general, Hulusi Akar, was reportedly taken hostage and was incommunicado. The night of violence saw hundreds dead as supporters of the AK Party took to the streets in what would long be remembered as peoples' intervention to protect the order of the day. Erdogan, who was in the resort town of Marmaris, rejected the takeover and called upon his supporters to resist it tooth and nail. Meanwhile, the junta which vowed to rewrite a new constitution collapsed like a house of cards. The martial law couldn't stand the test. People took to the streets to confront the coup plotters and it was all over in a couple of hours.
The question is where does Turkey stand after this act of treason? From a political perspective, one thing is clear - the powerful military is yet to come to terms with the assertive dispensation of Erdogan. Attempts to clip the powers of the army have proved to be short-lived. Moreover, this coup has come at a time when Turkey is in a state of war with itself. It confronts enemies at home and abroad in the form of the separatist Kurds and the militant Daesh, respectively. Millions of uprooted Syrians are on the Turkish soil, and Ankara is in an uneasy equation while dealing with the European Union and the West who want it to do more to stem the illegal flow of migrants across the Mediterranean. Back-to-back terror attacks inside Turkey, claimed by Daesh, have unnerved the country. While Erdogan has proved his mantle by successfully resisting the coup, now is the time for him to indulge in introspection. He has to closely study as to what factors of his internal and external policies are not in relevance with the powerful establishment at home. His quest to see the exit of Syrian President Bashar Al Assad and to opt for a hot pursuit, if needed, has undermined his credentials. Ankara's confused policy while dealing with the Americans, the Kurds and the Daesh has created more problems. Its crackdown on Kurds at a time when their support was badly needed in protecting the porous frontiers against Daesh incursions is a blunder. The ruling AK Party's desire to amass more power and marginalise the military establishment is widely seen as the root cause of the dispute. Erdogan should revisit all these issues, and instantly broker reconciliation with the Kurds and his political opponents. Turkey cannot afford to fight on two fronts, and that too at a time when it faces a virtual enemy deep inside its rank and file. The post-putsch period is an opportunity for the strife-torn country to recollect itself and defeat the tides of extremism and revulsion. Political stability in Turkey is sine qua non to the region. Which is why the West and the regional states, who may otherwise have reservations with the state of affairs in Ankara, denounced the military intervention, and stood behind the elected dispensation. Erdogan should relive this new lease of political life to pull Turkey out of the abyss of political and institutional discord, and defeat terrorism with full might.