Just as the American purge of the Baath party in Iraq following the occupation led to the collapse of the country’s state structure, Erdogan’s massive cleanse of state institutions could lead to similar catastrophic results.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has strongly denied any claims that his government had prepared arrest lists before Friday’s failed coup attempt. Taking him by his word, things could be even worse. The government could be acting out of pure anger without thinking thorough what would be the consequences of rounding up thousands upon thousands of people from the military, the judiciary system, other state institutions and from academia.

This failed military coup could become Turkey’s Iraqification moment. After the occupation in Iraq, the first thing on the American agenda was to remove all Baath party members from Iraq’s state institutions. That led to the collapse of the state structure in the country. The mass arrests in Turkey now could lead to a similar situation.

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