In an interview with Sputnik, Jenkins commented on the recent statement by the Turkish President in which he accused Fethullah Gulen, a political exile living in the United States and founder of the influential oppositional Gulen movement, of plotting the coup against Erdogan.
"They blame the supporters of Fethullah Gulen for this. But that doesn't seem to be the case. The Gulen movement had penetrated the military but not to a very large extent…. The vast majority of [perpetrators] are not related to the Gulen movement," Jenkins said.
According to Jenkins, members of the Turkish opposition haven't actually supported the coup attempt in the country.
"In the opposition, both in terms of political opposition to Erdogan and […] the people, there hasn't been substantial support for the coup plotters. So these people, you know, mainly stayed at home," the expert said.
According to Jenkins, things in Istanbul are calm at the moment. However, there are still huge concerns about future developments that might take place in Turkey.
"I think there is a lot of concern about what is going to happen in Turkey now," Jenkins said. "Turkey is a deeply polarized society, it's a deeply traumatized society because also before this coup attempt we've had enough problems here — with the war against the Kurds, […] suppression of the media, the ISIS bombs etc. And now we have a coup attempt on top of all of this."
Commenting on the possible future developments in the country, Jenkins said:
"There are so many problems, so many fault lines in Turkish society and we are not going to have any stability anytime in the foreseeable future."
The coup attempt was reportedly suppressed by early Saturday, with Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim stating that all coup supporters have been detained and the country is returning to normal life. Over 180 were killed and 1470 were injured during the events, while nearly 3,000 people have been detained, according to the prime minister.
