Erdogan's Islamist mobs know that their moment has finally arrived

Late on Saturday night, just 24 hours after the attempted coup, hundreds of supporters of President Erdogan swarmed into Taksim Square – the pulsating heart of secular, modern Turkey – to celebrate their victory with shouts of Takbir – ‘Allahu Akbar’, meaning ‘God is Great’.

Already the story – so hard to piece together – was being put in stone by the AKP mob. ‘We are here to tell the world that we won, and we are the real Turkey. This is a victory against those traitor Gulenists.’ Fethullah Gülen, an Islamic cleric based in Pennsylvania, was once a key ally of Erdogan but relations have been fraught for several years. Erdogan has accused Gulen of being behind the coup. Considering the Turkish military have long been defenders of the secular Kemalist tradition, such an accusation is unlikely. In reality, Gulenists has simply become a useful word for Erdogan to use against anyone who dares to disagree with him.