Coup attempt and its foreign connections

It is no doubt that the coup attempt has shaken Turkey. If the attempt had been successful, the effects would be far worse and unpredictable. Turkey's economy, political structure and social fiber would be terribly damaged.

That is why people poured into the streets and defended their regime, their country and their society. Some lost their lives in a sacrifice to save their children's future. Gülenists, also referred to as the "parallel structure," were behind the coup, and even those who know this group well were surprised of the scale and violence of the event.

The most incredible part was perhaps the eagerness of the plotters to kill their own people. Maybe that is why most people are persuaded that some foreign hands must be involved in this craziness. Intellectuals and politicians, too, believe that this evil attempt cannot be explained only by the fact that a clique within the state mechanism wanted to seize power. A legitimate question remains: Had it succeeded, who here and in the foreign world would benefit from it?

We know that the parallel structure would be happy, and we know that if this criminal group had seized power, they would not use it to construct a democratic and secular state. One wonders what kind of foreign policy they would adopt.

Who in the world would be happy to see our president killed and the governing party dismantled? President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi in Egypt and Bashar Assad in Syria would certainly be pleased, and in Saudi Arabia, the rulers would be happy to see the end of an elected government in the Muslim world. Maybe Armenia, too, would be happy to see Turkey in chaos. In the developed world, there would certainly be some happy people, even though in order to give the image that they reject military regimes they would be discreet.

On the contrary, some other nations would be quite alarmed with the end of Justice and Development Party (AK Party) rule in Turkey. Iran, Azerbaijan, Russia, Iraq and the Gulf states would question with concern what kind of Turkey would emerge after this coup. Greece and Bulgaria would be quite worried as well to have a Turkey ruled by the military, because they know by experience what that means.

If the plotters had succeeded, Western democracies would certainly announce at first that they reject military regimes out of principle. They would say that, but would they really be unhappy? It is not easy to guess who would be honestly sad and who would only shed crocodile tears.

This is not only my personal opinion. My impression is that most Turks think the same way. Besides, many people believe the United States is behind this coup attempt. They think so, maybe because the head of the "parallel structure" lives in the U.S. or because the two countries have differences in their respective Syria policies. Moreover, people have not forgotten that the U.S. supports the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD). Turkish political history proves that in the past coup attempts, the U.S. has always taken the plotters' side. Even Russian President Vladimir Putin insinuated that the U.S. must be involved in this attempt. As a result, almost everyone in Turkey now has doubts about the U.S.

It is not hard to guess that there are some foreign implications in the coup attempt. We must not, however, jump to conclusions. If we are sure about U.S. involvement, we also have to ask who exactly in the U.S. was involved. Even though there are circles that backed the coup attempt, they are perhaps outside the current administration. Maybe that is why the U.S. administration and the Turkish government should focus their efforts on finding out who the plotters' foreign supporters might be. Maybe they do not need to look very far, and just study what their allies were doing.