President Erdogan’s postmodern coup

‘Big theatre,’ the man who runs the shop downstairs said to me as I tried to buy a tin of tuna. Normally our exchanges are limited to a simple polite ‘hello, how are you, see you soon’. But this time he wouldn’t let me leave. He had something to say and I was his audience.

He waved his arms about as the words flowed. He speaks no English, but through the Turkish I have learned and his hand signals I knew what he was trying to tell me. As if his words weren’t enough, he then began showing me the videos. I have seen some things in my time, but this was unfathomable. Unarmed soldiers, barely turned out of school, having their heads smashed in by the hordes who rallied to the Turkish president’s call.

They were from almost a week ago when this country was, for a few hours, turned upside down.