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In July 2016, a failed coup attempt by Turkey's military ended when security forces detained thousands of participants after a bloody night that left at least 240 people dead. In the days after, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan closed hundreds of schools, arrested thousands, and declared a three-month state of emergency during which he vowed to root out the viruses within the military. At the same time, a story emerged that CIA agents were directly involved in Turkey's failed military coup: The conspiracy web site WhatDoesItMean.com appears to be the driving force behind this rumor, which publishes many stories that range from mostly true to completely fabricated. In this case, the site purports to have information that two CIA agents, who were behind a foiled plot to kill President Erdogan, were arrested in Turkey. By a strange coincidence, the site says that these are also the exact two agents who were behind shooting down a Russian bomber over Syria in 2015. It's true that news outlets reported from the region that two pilots were arrested following the attempted coup: It's further true that the same two men are accused by the Erdogan administration of downing a Russian jet in November 2015: There's even some speculation that the two pilots have ties to a Muslim cleric originally from Turkey who currently lives in the United States: However, there's absolutely no evidence listed (including from the site that first published this story) to suggest that the two pilots were agents of the United States government.
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