Democracies do not suffer coups because change is effected through the ballot boxes. Neither do they have purges of tens of thousands of officials nor do they have laws declared by decree. In Turkey all this is happening right now. This is unacceptable for a candidate for membership of the EU and certainly for membership of NATO. While the West must do nothing which will risk internal conflict or other upheavals in its ally, another failed state is the last thing anybody wants, it must proceed with caution and urge a return to the secular and democratic principles which are the foundation of the modern Turkish state.