People in Turkey were staggered by the news of a military coup attempt on a Friday night, 15 July 2016. F-16 jets flying low over Istanbul and Ankara, tanks moving on the streets to block major routes, bombardment of Parliament, occupation of TV stations, raiding of the hotel where the President was staying in etc. Unprecedented events took place until early hours of 16 July Saturday morning. Several thousand people went on the streets to stand against and block the movement of military troops; citizens flocked to the Ataturk Airport in Istanbul to meet President Erdoğan who addressed the people via FaceTime and advised them to go out and resist the putschists.

In the aftermath of the coup attempt, Turkey is endowed with a unique opportunity to restructure and rejuvenate the State based on the principle of merit and competence, to integrate different elements of the society on the basis of a renewed patriotic consensus and to employ the potential of all citizens for the further democratization and development of the country.  The coup attempt was an alarm bell for the government as well as for the opposition parties and civil society that Turkey had now averted a great danger and does not have any other alternative than to build a democratic consensus and continue to work adamantly for peace, stability and welfare of the people.

This report intends to provide a brief account of what happened during and after the coup attempt, to shed light on who the perpetrators were and how the government, opposition, civil society, business world and the EU reacted to these developments in Turkey. Turkey’s EU perspective continues to matter in the aftermath of the coup attempt and EU reforms will provide an anchor role in Turkey’s democratization path.

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