Anybody understand Turkey?

[museumum]

Maybe this would be better in "in the news" but does anybody here know about the political situation in turkey?

The thing that surprised me is the bit about the crack down on academics and teachers and mass sackings.

It's not usual elsewhere for academics and the military to be political bedfellows. Normally the military are quite conservative and right wing while academia is often left leaning and can be quite anti-military.
How does this play out in turkey? Where does religion and secularism come into the story?

to be so uninformed.

I don't pretend to understand it, but this reminds me of a former student of mine who was pushed out of a post at one of the universities there as she didn't have the 'right' sort of politics.

But the "coup" was used as a reason to crack down on anybody who opposes Erdogan. Academics and teachers are natural suspects, as academics in particular are free thinkers. As I understand it there was little evidence that the academics were actually conspiring with the military. The main thing academics have in common with the military is secularism and distaste for Erdogan's religious agenda but all the academics I know were very much opposed to a coup. (They felt this was a giant step backwards for the country: they would rather democratic opposition to Erdogan arose from the people.)

BTW the lists of those suspended/arrested/sacked were clearly prepared before the coup. At least one person on these lists was already dead (from illness) at the time of the coup.

Erdogan is opposed to secularism. That's the nub of it. The G- imam guy who lives in USA is a strong proponent of secularism, and preaches on how to be both a good Muslim & a defender of secularism. I find the Turkey situation very very scary. Are the purges more scary or the fact that the majority population seems to be taking it all on the chin as necessary and proportionate to purge the intellectual class and anyone else who could politically oppose Erdogan? I'm not sure which is worse.

ps: I never go for conspiracy theories, but this "coup" stinks to high heaven of falsehoods.