Coup in Turkey!

I only now noticed that in August, the Turkish Supreme Military Court was getting ready to expel military servicemen said to be affiliated to the Gülen movement.

Might well be that this coup attempt was connected to that.

Many people think so.

Some think it was a false flag operation orchestrated by Erdogan for a mandate to sanitize the military---- Stalinesque.

Actually: a few, and there are even more conspiracy theories.

Fact is, however, that the failed coup not only strengthened Erdogan's position but put him in a situation to go even further.

Yes. As I mentioned, some critics see this as his orchestrated plan. But it is the result at any rate. He has a mandate of sorts to do a cleansing.

Totalitarian times in Turkey...

Now, some quote sources from German secret service that they think, a small circle of majors and colonels, all followers of Kemalism, started the coup and just had a lot of hope ...

And I have a pilot in the air.
(US)
False flag - Look away now.

I've been following, in my desultory way, Erdogen and his growing authoritarianism and, to me, non Ataturk ways for quite a while now, while also reading interesting and thorough articles about the Kurds some couple of years ago in the New Yorker. Desultory in that I don't have links for all that. I do have the New Yorkers, but they are in stacks and aren't not very easy to find stuff there online - one tends to need the exact title.

Here's a recent interesting article -
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/07/16/failed-turkish-army-mutiny-is-a-bounty-for-erdogan.html

I may or may not be for the failed coup, don't know enough, but I'm leaving room for being for it. There are other Daily Beast articles in the last few days on all this, one going on about the history of military coups, usually trying to keep things as Ataturk/Kamal wanted them - a secular government, whatever people's religions.

Wonderfully. Kadaffy has been absolutely prevented from returning to power and inflicting more horrors on the world.

It sucks that he's not in a cell at the Hague, but it is really nice that there is no longer any possibility of him resuming his reign of terror.

Erdogan is the Islamist ruler. Given the secular nature of the Turkish military it is likely that the coup would have installed a secular dictator.



That's actually a negative, considering the positive influence of the Turkish military verses the negative influence of Erdogan.

Also, the method that Erdogan used to damage the military was to unjustly imprison military leaders on false charges.

I suppose being imprisoned on false charges is not nearly as bad as being a Kurd and having your children massacred by Erdogan, but horrible injustices are unforgivable nonetheless.



It is impossible to cope democratically where there is no democracy. Turkey's "democracy" is just as pretend as Russia's "democracy".

My guess is that Erdogan will keep the base where the US planes are closed until he gets that fellow in Pennsylvania (Gulen, I think is his name) extradited and likely executed. Trouble in River City, if so. I'm seeing more and more articles against Erdogen (haven't linked them all here), even though most of the news is all about how the heads of state, etc., are all said to be against the attempted military coup.

Ah, here's a link I'd not added -
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jul/16/turkey-coup-army-erdogan
It's about there already being a slow coup by Erdogan going on.

And now I see I'm wrong about the secular business and the Kemal folks:

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/interrogation/2016/07/why_turkey_s_latest_attempted_coup_was_different.html

A Turk government minister accuses the US of plotting the coup; finally, news outlets are proferring the false flag theory. Lots of accusations and theories flying.

we have a chicken coup

I don't for a minute, but I would like to believe this is true. Endogan is no friend of the US. Although that it seems to have failed miserably does suggest this administration's fingerprints.

He's only going to get worse now.

I wonder why people voted down your accurate assessments. Erdogan as a legitimate democratically elected president is a joke. Anyone who's been following him and Turkey recently knows that.

I'm hearing a lot of chatter that the US uses Erdogan as a puppet in the region, we ran the coup to benefit Erdogan, we support his authoritarian moves, and we are pressing the UN to look the other way.

I'll look for articles if anyone has the stones to write about it.

The US takes a shady position backing such a mini Mussolini.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-07-20/erdogan-convenes-turkey-s-top-security-heads-as-purges-continue

Looks like we may be in the process of being busted for running realpolitik shenanigans.

Will bring any investigative reporting on the subject. Wait! I made a joke. "Investigative reporting"... Heh.

Bedfellows.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/on-syria-the-united-states-and-turkey-need-each-other/2016/05/26/3a9b5ea6-237e-11e6-8690-f14ca9de2972_story.html

Excerpt

One U.S. commander privately describes the American campaign in Syria as “realpolitik on steroids.” Okay, defeat the Islamic State now, worry about the regional mess later. But the United States and Turkey need to get smarter about regional strategy, or they’re heading for a crack-up.

http://www.euronews.com/2016/07/19/turkey-cancels-licenses-of-21000-private-teachers-removes-15000-state-teachers

Education purge in Turkey. UN silent.

Recent background information on realpolitik moves regarding Turkey, the US, the EU.

http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2015/10/europes-cynical-realpolitik-with-turkey.html