In the Turkish capital of Ankara on the night of July 15, a fraction of the Turkish military made a failed attempt at a military coup d’état of the government, stating, “That it had seized power to protect democracy from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan,” via a state broadcaster.

Erdogan, age 62, was the Prime Minister from 2003 until 2014 and is the current sitting president of Turkey since 2014. “The government is in control,” Erdogan declared in Istanbul to the loss of around 250 dead and 1,400 wounded between civilian and soldier casualties in the early hours of July 16.

Erdogan points to Muhammad Fethullah Gulen as the mastermind of the coup; Gulen was a close ally of Erdogan’s until late 2013, when Erdogan accused Gulen of initiating a series of corruption investigations against him. Gulen exiled himself to Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania in 1999 to escape charges of planning to overthrow the government in Turkey. He is currently under the protection of the United States government, which requested evidence of Gulen’s guilt from the Turkish government before turning over the former Imam.

“The U.S. Justice Department had received 85 boxes of documents from Turkey related to Gulen so far,”  Turkish Parliament Member Kamil Aydin told Reuters. The organization actually responsible for the attempted coup remains unknown.

In a political move largely associated with dictators, Erdogan declared a state of emergency using emergency powers to bypass parliament and began purging a wide range of groups suspected of being enemies of the government­—from judges and lawyers to teachers and journalists. On Aug. 17, Turkey announced that they would be releasing up to 38,000 nonviolent criminals (or roundabout one-fifth of their total prison population) to make room in the prisons for those being purged. The Human Rights Association in Turkey reported that many detainees from the coup attempt slept in the communal jail spaces, usually with no bedding, which raised serious health concerns as well. Even outside the prison walls, Edrogan had been slowly eroding away the freedom of expression in Turkey, shutting down upwards of 100 entire news outlets suspected of holding ties to the aforementioned Gulen.

Not only are tens of thousands of citizens being detained under emergency powers, top military leaders are also being purged, with about 118 generals and admirals detained, 100 Turkish intelligence service, and 8,777 Ministry of Interior personnel. In the schools and universities, 22,000 teachers in private institutions have had their licenses revoked, and 1,577 university deans have been ordered to resign.