Erdoğan once famously declared that he was the prosecutor on the “Ergenekon” case, which was supposedly aimed at exposing and combating the Turkish “deep state” composed of military officials and secular nationalists, but that targeted a wide range of political opponents. When the horrifying – but entirely fabricated – documents behind the generals’ fictitious “Sledgehammer” coup plot came out, Erdoğan lent credence to them by saying that he had been aware of such plots.