I think there are false flag elements to it too possibly. These massive changes to the military and the judiciary would've been impossible otherwise. All you'd need to do was to encourage a weak coup and then it's a done deal. Soldiers typically follow orders. From the footage and reports it's clear that lots of these young conscripts didn't even know that they were part of a coup.

It wouldn't be the first time Erdogan has attempted to create a piece of theatre in order to manipulate the population. This video he tried to ban from 2014 was very damning [Link]

I'm somewhat suspicious of the fact that 2700 judges were removed from duty the very next day. Of course we could argue that the coup was viewed as an opportunity to make these changes but the speed and purposefulness of it was quite staggering.

It could be that Erdogan had advanced notice of this and so had time to prepare his actions. It wouldn't be the first time a coup had taken there obviously. But now we know that they could've taken out Erdogan but seemingly chose not to [Link] - even though that's a key aspect of a coup - so lots about what happened is unusual.

I definitely wouldn't put it past him that they went some way to encourage these events or at least let it occur with prior knowledge, in order to make vast and sweeping changes to the country.

You may well be right. If it was a legitimate take over attempt I wish it had succeeded. Not as though anyone taking over by force is likely to be entirely benign, but I think Erdogan is going to go swiftly in a direction now that doesn't benefit his own people or the world.

My suspicion is that Erdogan had planned for the possibility of a coup or similar uprising and had ideas about how he would exploit that to his advantage.

Generally things like a coup don't 'appear out of nowhere' and I expect that he may well have been aware of unrest among the military, and I would expect that prior to the coup, military officers in Turkey had made official protests and clear their issues, rather than immediately planning to replace the government.

Of course 2700 Judges to me, reads more like taking advantage to consolidate power, removing a second problematic thorn in his side.

I suspect there is a significant split between the 'Westernised' elite and the rest. My Turkish friends are deeply secular and see themselves as progressive, but that's Ankara and especially Istanbul.