I Smell Fish

This "report" was put out when the coup in Turkey first went down:

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is reportedly seeking asylum in Germany, after first landing in Istanbul and being turned away, a senior U.S. military source said, MSNBC reported July 15. Erdogan is reportedly still in the plane on the way to Germany.

  Stratfor

Turkish president Tayyip Erdoğan is reportedly seeking asylum in Europe, as a military coup continues in Turkey, U.S. military sources tell NBC News. Erdoğan's presidential jet was allegedly denied landing rights at Istanbul's airport, before heading out of the country. He was then denied asylum in Germany, according to NBC, before heading to London.

The Daily Beast could not confirm these reports.

  Daily Beast

Why was that apparently false information - what USA Today called "unverified reports" - leaked to the press by "US military sources"?

Turkish Airlines flight 8456 - a Gulfstream Aerospace G5X private jet used by the government - took off from outside the southern seaside resort of Bodrum, where Erdogan had been on holiday at around 11pm.

It flew northwards but then stopped over the remote northwest corner of Turkey at around 00.20am, circling over and over again as the situation on the ground unfolded before carrying on towards Istanbul at 1am.

He touched down in Turkey’s biggest city 20 minutes later and emerged from the jet to deliver a triumphant victory speech, declaring that the coup was over and vowing to purge the military of plotters.

  UK Express

You'd think it would be a simple enough matter to check with Germany whether there was a plea for asylum.  Not for me, but for news sources, and I haven't yet found any.

Together with the very early Twitter report that Erdoğan had been arrested, the numerous US military experts criticizing the way the coup was conducted, and John Kerry's cautious first remarks about hoping for stability, there is a distinct stench of US involvement, if not instigation.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE July 17: I further checked the Twitter account of Feyzi İşbaşaran, and that Tweet about Erdoğan being arrested does not exist. Whether it ever did or not, I cannot say. If I had thought there was a problem, I could have checked the account when the Tweet first appeared as a Retweet in Adam Johnson's account. (I also checked the translation. I think it's correct.)