On: Turkish Military’s Influence Rises Again

[digi_owl]

Making Turkey a bit odd, in that elsewhere the army seems to be the first to side with the religious people (no matter the religion involved).

[dragontamer → digi_owl]

Isn't Egypt's military also largely secular?

[raincom → dragontamer]

How about Pakistan's army? Secular or religious?

[redwood → raincom]

Secular

[rdl → redwood]

Army is secular; Navy is much less so, which seems weird.

[Spooky23 → digi_owl]

Usually the army in these situations is like a state within a state. The officers are educated at West Point and Sandhurst. They are nationalists.

Usually when the military sides with religious people, it's a sign of a weak state.

[elgabogringo → digi_owl]

Most of the major coups that come to my mind are the military preventing a government with a very extreme ideology from taking a country past the point of no return.

Usually it's something that takes place when the military itself is getting infiltrated and it either needs to act or be taken over by the ideology itself.