A military coup or a coup d’état is an attempt by the military to overthrow a presidency. The most recent example was Turkey where the armed forces attempted to overthrow President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
The coup attempt failed because the people did not support it and tried to stop the coup at every turn, with 173 civilians killed and 1540 injured.
This brings up the question whether coups are ethical particularly if the people do not support them. When the people do not support a military coup and it is still happening that means the the military is mainly doing the coup for its interest. This is bad because when people are not supporting the military, many die.
We believe that if a coup does not have the people’s support then it is a seed for a military dictatorship. Supporters of the coup might say that the president was bad and the coup would have helped the country but the fact is that since the president and prime minister of Turkey were democratically elected, the people should choose if they get overthrown and it should be the people who are always the most important no matter what.
Now we will show some quotes from an interview by Alex Davis with Bennet Ratcliff who was a consultant for Bill Clinton and worked on the Honduran military coup for Clinton.
AD: What was your role in the military coup?
Br: I worked in making the country into a more efficient democracy after the coup
AD: Did the Honduran people support the Coup?
BR: Many people wanted the coup while many other people did not want it. Some people in the president’s own cabinet wanted the president to be overthrown
AD: What exactly happened in the military coup in Honduras?
BR: Well, The president wanted to run for a third term in office, but the constitution did not allow it. So the president tried to host a referendum to amend the constitution. Because of the fact that the president tried to do something that was unconstitutional, the Honduran army overthrew the president
AD: What do you think is going through the minds of anyone that is causing a coup anywhere in the world?
BR:I think that anyone who wants to throw a democratic coup in the name of making the country better is an extremely brave act. It is amazing what is going through their hearts and their minds and I think that their idea of democracy and the things that they will do for the people is amazing and the risks they will take.