mesop news TOP OF THE AGENDA : ERDOGAN’S MASS TRIAL – A SUMMARY OF RELEVANT VOICES & SOURCES

Mass Trial Over Turkey’s Failed Coup Begins

The trial of 486 defendants accused of taking part in a failed coup attempt in Turkey last July, including generals, military pilots, and the U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, began in an Ankara court Tuesday (AP). Charges include membership in a terrorist organization, attempting to assassinate President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (Anadolu), and endangering public safety. The trial is the largest of its kind (Al Jazeera) among dozens in relation to the attempted coup, which left at least 249 people dead. The case focuses on the Akinci Air Base (RFE/RL), which Turkey says the defendants used as a headquarters to plot the coup.

ANALYSIS

“Turkey was undeniably transformed by last July’s failed coup. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, having barely survived an attempt on this life, has become a Turkish Muslim messiah in the eyes of his supporters,” Soner Cagaptay and Oya Rose Aktas write for Foreign Affairs.

“A purge that the government had begun well before the failed putsch accelerated and has since ruined the lives of more than 200,000 people and counting,” CFR’s Steven A. Cook writes for Foreign Policy.

“Erdogan’s crackdown has to be short-lived. He needs to show potential coup plotters that the cost of rebelling can be prohibitively high. Yet, plunging the country into a permanent state of suspicion, purges, economic uncertainty, and military weakness is not In his interests either,” Ersin Senel writes for the Guardian.