Recep Tayyip Erdogan could soon
become the most powerful Turkish leader since Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who
founded modern Turkey, and arguably the most powerful leader “since the
collapse of the Ottoman Empire” in 1923, Soner Cagaptay told me.
Cagaptay told me this on Sunday, just two days after roaring fighter jets, rolling tanks, and rebel helicopters had descended on Ankara, Istanbul, and the Turkish Riviera in an attempt
to overthrow the Turkish president—two days after the insurrectionists
had forced a television newscaster to read their manifesto on air, while
Erdogan was reduced to FaceTiming with a TV anchor
from an undisclosed location, flickering in and out of view as the
anchor received incoming calls.
How, between Friday and Sunday, had the
itty-bitty man on the iPhone screen morphed into the second coming of
Ataturk? Why did FaceTime triumph over tanks? And what does that tell us about the nature of Erdogan’s power, and how he might wield it after squashing last weekend’s coup?
Redad more: After Turkey's Coup Comes Erdogan's Purge - The Atlantic
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