It absolutely repeats itself but I see it more along with current Turkey's situation. The "strong" men needed to assure stability while they impoverish their nations and rule with a rather iron-y fist. Kind of a trend all around the globe.
Is that the case with Turkey? I always assumed Erdogan was doing a good job.
Well, there are a couple of red flags that come to mind. People are getting criminally charged for making fun of him, there was this case in the news where a doctor compared Erdogan to Gollum and he got a 1 year sentence plus he lost the custody rights to his children. Many more who were charged for that crime including a german comedian who read an insulting poem on TV. Or a journalist getting charged for liking a FB post which was insulting to Erdogan.
What I get from that coup is that they were most likely genuine, but turned out to be a severe miscalculation on the rebels as they did not have the support they needed. It was mistimed rebellion, if you ask me. I would guess the reason they went ahead with it is because they already sensed Erdogan was always going to turn out this way, but instead they just sped up his descent and gave Erdogan the popular support he needed to stay in power.
I definitely agree that there was a genuine sentiment going through the ranks of the rebels. They probably also underestimated how much of the general public was on Erdogan's side since the economy was still doing rather well. Nevertheless, Erdogan certainly used it to have legitimacy in his actions against his enemies. I can just very well believe the claims that he got rid of more than just those involved in the coup.
