It is too early to judge with accuracy exactly what is going on in Turkey. We know the coup has failed. We do not know exactly who was behind it. The Erdogan government seems to know almost too much, stoking wilder theories that it was in fact behind the whole thing. Whatever the truth and there may not be one truth but several, there is little doubt that the government is using the situation as an excuse to crack down on decent. The West has a delicate path to tread here but it is well marked. First it should be made clear to the president that in properly constituted and functioning democracies coups do not happen. Second the mass arrest of thousands is not the way things are done and third the mass suspension and or detention of judges is definitely not the way things are done.
Nevertheless we also have to understand that toppling dictators, the signature dish of the West’s floundering post cold war policy, leads only to chaos and a collapsed state. It is sadly true that any leader is better than none. We must surely know that by now.