The attempted coup in Turkey this week by parts of the military is an exceptionally worrisome development in a region that is already extremely unstable.

The Turkish military has long been the primary defender of the secular state idea introduced by Kemal Atatürk. Thus, it is not at all surprising that some members of the armed forces have not been at all comfortable with the presidency of Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Islamist Justice and Development Party. President Erdogan and his political allies have used their political power to chip away at the very foundations of Atatürk’s secular state and to shift Turkey into formally becoming an Islamic republic. For years the military has chafed under Erdogan’s rule and his weakening of the secular state in Turkey.

The defeat of the coup may be attributed to several factors. First, it was, apparently, neither well conceived nor well executed. One commentator pointed out that while the leaders of the coup seized the major traditional means of communications (television, radio, etc.), they neglected to plan for Erdogan’s very effective use of social media and the internet to gain supporters. Second, and, perhaps, more important, it would appear that many Turks, even those who favor a secular state and, thereby, oppose Erdogan, believe that preservation of the democratically elected government and the established legal order was more important than removing Erdogan from office.

Unfortunately, the coup may have given Erdogan both the pretext and popular support for a crackdown on the military and other pro-secular forces in the Turkish establishment. Reports from Turkey indicate that large numbers of military personnel, including senior officers, members of the judiciary and other government officials, have been removed from their positions and arrested. Indeed, one report suggested that there will be a movement to restore the death penalty in Turkey so that the leaders of the coup can be sentenced to death. The long-term effects of this “purge” of supporters of Atatürk’s secular state may be to accelerate the transformation of Turkey from a Western-style secular to a traditional Islamic state. Such a change will be a radical one and have major impacts not only in Turkey’s home region, but also globally since Turkey is not only a major regional military power but also a member of NATO.

The past month has seen increasing political and military instability in the world; Brexit, the terrorist attacks in Nice and other locations, and, now, the failed coup in Turkey. I remember rather wistfully the declarations of a new, more peaceful and safer world after the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. How wrong that now seems in hindsight after 9/11, the rise of global terrorism, the aftermath of the Arab Spring and all of the other events that have, in fact, made the world, perhaps, even more dangerous than it was 50 years ago.

— Mike Hoeflich, a distinguished professor in the Kansas University School of Law, writes a regular column for the Journal-World.