“‘I wouldn’t say it’s entirely implausible,’ says Rachel Ellehuus, deputy director of the Europe Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank. ‘I’ve never seen proof to that end.’
“Still, Ellehuus and others say that Erdogan has clearly benefited from the coup — which he termed ‘a gift from God’ — allowing him to swiftly eliminate any criticism of his government…”