As someone who spent a very long night in the middle of Beyoğlu during the coup (e.g., small arms fire, sonic booms that shattered windows, run on ATMs) and extremely tense weeks that followed (e.g., gangs of men patrolling the streets, shouting takbir, and threatening less conservative citizens), it certainly felt real. I personally think the truth lies not in either binary option, but somewhere in between. A political event can both be organic in nature and carefully exploited by and for the benefit of the other side.