This weekend's failed coup in Turkey could make for major changes in an important US ally. With fervent backing from religious crowds in the streets, will President Recep Erdoğan crown himself as an Islamic leader?
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan attends a funeral service for victims of the thwarted coup
in Istanbul at Fatih Mosque in Istanbul, Turkey, July 17, 2016.
(Alkis Konstantinidis/Reuters)
As a coup plot led by some military leaders was unfolding against his administration, Erdoğan called for prayers of support in the country's 80,000 mosques. It was early in the morning, but tens of thousands of Turks took to the streets. Soner Cagaptay, who reports for the Wall Street Journal and is author of The Rise of Turkey: The 21st Century's First Muslim Power, looks at how this weekend’s failed coup could make for major changes in an important US ally.