Turkey and the Failed Coup One Year Later

One year after the failed coup of July 15, 2016, Turkey is in crisis. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has used the post-coup crackdown on the junta plotters to cast a wide net over his opponents, from leftists to seculars and Kurdish nationalists. Yet the country is deeply polarized in its perception of Erdogan: he is either blindly loved or completely loathed. Furthermore, this crisis is shaping not only Turkey’s role as a U.S. ally against the Islamic State in Syria but also its ties to NATO, Russia, and the EU. To discuss the foreign policy implications of a divided Turkey, The Washington Institute hosted a Policy Forum with Omer Taspinar, James F. Jeffrey, and Soner Cagaptay.