ISTANBUL — Standing atop a bus outside his mansion in Istanbul on Saturday night, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, victorious after putting down a coup attempt by renegade factions of the military, told his followers, “We only bow to God.”

The symbolism was stark. The informal rally harked back to his days as an up-by-the-bootstraps populist and Islamist leader who often spoke from the tops of buses. And his message, cloaked in the language of Islam, underscored how much Turkey has changed in recent decades.

Members of the military, once the guardians of the country’s secular traditions who successfully pulled off three coups last century, were being rounded up and tossed in jail, and other perceived enemies were being purged from the state bureaucracy.

The Islamists, meanwhile, were dancing in the streets.



That is where, Mr. Erdogan said on Sunday, they would remain.