In the later hours of the night on July 15, tanks solemnly rolled through the streets of Istanbul and Ankara as F-16s streaked overhead. Soldiers clad in kevlar formed up to close off the Bosphorus Bridge while a bewildered populace peered out their windows in an attempt to grasp what exactly was happening. It wasn't until Turkey's president Recep Tayyip Erdogan reached out to the populace via Face Time did the harsh reality set in: Turkey was in the midst of a military coup. Heeding Erdogan's call for popular support, hundreds if not thousands of Turks left their apartments to confront the military units that were threatening Erdogan's government. After several hours of clashes between soldiers and civilians in Ankara and Istanbul, it became apparent that the coup had in fact failed. Erdogan triumphantly returned to Istanbul, vowing to punish those who he deemed as traitors to the state.

As of now, more than 6,000 suspects have been arrested in connection with the coup, including military personnel, judges, and police officers. Additionally, 8,777 people have been dismissed from their posts, according to the Turkish Interior. The following persons are accused of spearheading the failed coup:

General Akin Ozturk - The 30th Air Force commander who retired in 2015 and was a member of the Turkey's Supreme Military Council prior to the attempted coup.

General Erdal Ozturk - The commander of Istanbul's Third Army that is responsible for blocking the Bosphorus Bridge. It was the Third Army confronted the civilians that supported Erdogan.

Colonel Muharrem Kose - A former legal advisor to the chief of military staff.

General Bekir Ercan Van - The commander of Incirlik Airbase. It is this airbase from which the U.S. conducts operations against the Islamic State in Syria.

General Adem Huduti - Commander of the Malatya based Second Army that is charged with guarding Turkey's border with Iran, Iraq, and Syria.

Alparslan Altan and Erdal Tercan - Two of the seventeen judges that preside over Turkey's Constitutional Court.

In addition to the above men, Fethullah Gülen is accused of masterminding the coup and inciting his followers in the military to act against the current government. Gülen is a Turkish cleric that promotes a moderate Islamist view and has a rather large following in Turkey. It was in 1990 that he moved to the U.S. in self-imposed exile after the Gülenists had a falling out with Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP). Erdogan is demanding that the U.S. extradite Gülen to face punishment in Turkey. Secretary of State John Kerry is open to the idea, but is demanding proof of Gülen's involvement as a prerequisite for his extradition. Gülen himself denies any involvement with the coup, and instead holds that Erdogan purposefully had the coup take place so that he could consolidate even more power.

By taking a step back and looking at how the attempted coup of 2016 fits into the bigger picture, it becomes apparent that this coup is a symptom of a much deeper conflict that exists centering the identity of Turkey itself. This coup, like others in the past, prompts the question of whether Turkey's identity is Islamic and focused towards the Middle East, or if it is secular and oriented towards the West. Despite Atatürk strict adherence to secularism in the early years of the Republic, the right wing Islamists that form Erdogan's AKP have been slowly moving Turkey towards a more Islamic orientation since coming to power in 2002.

Despite having been successful in past elections, the AKP has won mostly by a slim margin, and cannot claim a broad and far-reaching popular mandate. In the 2014 presidential elections, Erdogan won with 51.79% of the vote, and in the 2015 legislative elections, AKP captured 49.5% of the seats, and came in first during the local election of 2014 with 42.9% of the vote. In Turkey, you either love Erdogan and the AKP or you hate them; there is no in-between. This polarization of Turks reflect how the soul of Turkey is deeply fractured among those who are secular and those who are Islamists.

Although the Islamist AKP dominates the government, the Turkish military has traditionally been a fierce champion of secularism. In the past the military has been known to give leaders the boot either by brute force or by threatening memorandums. This has happened on four separate occasions when the military perceived the government to be either dangerously ineffective, or on a trajectory that is deemed too off-course from the founding principles of Kemalism.

However in the mid 2000s, Erdogan has clamped down on the military in order to make it more docile as he consolidates power. In a way, he is de-clawing the lion in order to prevent widespread dissent within the military. Recently, the military has become less influential in politics than it used to be. The coup attempt of 2016 failed because it not only lacked broad bases of support within the military itself, but it was also poorly organized which resulted in its failure to capture or kill Erdogan earlier in the game.

From here, Erdogan will most likely accelerate the rate at which he consolidates power using the coup attempt as justification for doing so. He will become more autocratic in his rule of the country as he tightens his grip on state and military apparatuses. The current purges that are going on in Turkey will allow Erdogan to replace potential opponents with supporters, thus ensuring his control of the government to be nearly total. In terms of foreign policy, Turkey's ability to cope with ISIS on a military level will be greatly reduced, and we may very well see Turkey move farther from the U.S. and Europe as Erdogan takes on a a drastically more autocratic approach to running the country.

For Turkey, this may very well be the beginning of the end of its democracy.