>>the news I hear seems to indicate that he is behaving in a very undemocratic manner that is not in the long-term interest of the Turkish people.
Erdogan called on the people to turn out on the streets to oppose the coup. They did. Surely Erdogan has public support? Why undemocratic? Sure we all can have opinions- mine is that the threatened re-introduction of capital punishment for coup leaders will put Turkey's EU aspirations back to square one, also that spontaneous celebrations in Syria suggest that there's more to this than is appreciated by the superficial Western mainstream media coverage. Which is the main issue IMHO: we Westerners may mean well, but our every involvement in somebody else's turmoil in living memory, has been a disaster because we don't know what we don't know. Maybe compare to this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggFWwKDnqtg
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
