Sun Tzu, the famous military strategist has stated, “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”

Seen from such a perspective, the Fethullah Gülen terrorist movement (FETÖ) in their last attempt to destroy the democratic structure of the Turkish state failed to know their enemy. While FETÖ considered the elected government as their enemy, another unexpected ‘enemy’ emerged –and that was the Turkish citizens. FETÖ did not realize the power of the Turkish people and took a malicious but blind step that backfired. They underestimated the fact that Turkey is a democratic state whose government is elected by the will of the Turkish citizens and that these people were willing to sacrifice their lives for the sake of their nation. Consequently, it is no wonder that they succumbed in a matter of hours. Calling this coup attempt a ‘battle’ may be considered an exaggeration by some but for those who witnessed what happened that night it is not so. It was a battle because the putschists did not only aim to overthrow the elected government –they bombed governmental institutions and killed innocent civilians. Turkey has suffered many military coups in the past but what happened on July 15 was not a military coup. It was a battle against the right of self-determination