The 2016 Turkish coup attempt is one of the most spectacular fuck-ups in modern coup history, and you need to study it because it shows exactly what happens when shit goes sideways.
On July 15, 2016, a faction of the Turkish military (aligned with the Gulen movement, a religious group Erdogan once loved and then tried to destroy) decided to seize power. They bombed the parliament (the fucking parliament). They took over the state broadcaster. They announced that the military was in charge now.
They made three colossal mistakes:
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They did not capture Erdogan. The guy was on vacation. He got on FaceTime (FaceTime!, like bro was prolly on skype and shi) and called a news channel. He told his people to hit the streets. And they did.
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They did not control the communications infrastructure. The pro-Erdogan imams broadcast the call to resist from every mosque in the country. The coup plotters had the state TV. Erdogan had the loudspeakers. Guess which one mattered more.
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They underestimated how popular Erdogan actually was with his base. The people flooding the streets were not democracy activists holding signs. They were Erdogan loyalists. Millions of them. The coup plotters thought they were fighting a government. They were fighting a cult of personality.
The coup failed. Over 300 people died. Erdogan used the whole disaster to purge the military, the judiciary, the civil service, and the media of anyone he even slightly distrusted. Over 100,000 people got fired or arrested. The coup attempt gave Erdogan the perfect excuse to grab more power than he ever had before (beautiful irony, really).
What we learned: if you try a coup and lose, the guy you tried to overthrow will become ten times more powerful. Make sure you fucking win.
Coming soon: Case Study: How to Survive a Coup (Venezuela 2002)