Although from an outside perspective a military coup seems completely undemocratic the Turkish military has historically had the role of maintaining the principles Atatürk founded the Turkish Republic on. You can think of them as a built-in correction mechanism in case the government veers too far off course -- they remove the government, reset everything to start and then hand over control back to the people once the situation is stable again.<p>I strongly suggest reading the Wikipedia article on Kemalism (the principles of Atatürk for the Turkish Republic): <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kemalism" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kemalism</a><p>Erdogan dreams of bringing Turkey back to its Ottoman glory and is willing to exploit religion (and abolish Laicism) to do so. I don't think he staged the failed coup himself but it is clear that he's benefited the most from it:<p>He told the Turkish people to go out and stop the coup, risking their lives and knowing full well that the soldiers wouldn't massacre the civilians but creating an opportunity to make his supporters seem like a peaceful opposition to the "violent" military.<p>He spread the narrative that the coup was staged not to defend Atatürk's principles but by a religious sect his ruling party fell out with. He used that narrative and the failed coup to get rid of thousands of educators, judges, officials and military officers (calling it a "purge" even).<p>He's basically doing what he did before: eliminating all opposition to ensure his rise to permanent and unlimited power. Except because of the clever PR move of risking his citizens' lives he now has public support for his autocratic ambitions.<p>Atatürk created a nation that should have been an inspiration to the entire Islamic world with a degree of secularism far outmatching that of many Christian nations. Instead Erdogan is heading full speed back into the dark ages of theocratic dictatorships. This is a political tragedy of disturbing proportions and a huge loss for Europe and the Middle East.
Here are the actions taken by Erdogan lead AKP government after the coup [0]. Day by day, I find it difficult to believe this coup was not staged.<p><pre><code> 300 Energy Ministry employees dismissed
184 Customs Ministry employees dismissed
8 top-level parliamentary executives removed
All Turks require extra documentation to travel outside country
86 Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK) employees dismissed
51 Borsa Istanbul (national stock exchange) employees dismissed
245 Sports Ministry personnel suspended
All Turkish academics banned from traveling abroad
140 members of the Supreme Court and 48 members of the Council of State (the highest court) got arrest warrants 4 days ago, no info on releases etc.
15,200 Ministry of Education personnel fired
24 news/media outlets broadcast licenses withdrawn
492 state religious personnel (Diyanet) removed
21,000 private teachers licenses revoked
393 personnel in Ministry of Family and Social Policy dismissed
257 personnel at PM's office dismissed & ID's seized
Demand for all 1,577 University Deans resignation
30 governors of 99 fired
9000 in Interior Ministry fired
180 intelligence officials (MIT, Turkey's national intelligence agency) suspended
2,745 judges dismissed
3,000,000 civil servants banned from going on holiday
Talks of reinstating the death penalty
1,500 Finance Ministry officials suspended
103 generals/admirals detained for questioning
</code></pre>
[0] <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/4tq4sd/all_turkish_academics_banned_from_traveling/d5jbyy6" rel="nofollow">https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/4tq4sd/all_turki...</a>
The U.S. stores nukes in Turkey as part of the NATO deterrence strategy. During the coup the Turkish authorities were quick to siege the military base supposedly hosting the nukes. From CNN:<p><pre><code> > Turkish authorities encircled the base, cut off the power
> supply and temporary closed the airspace around Incirlik
> as they fought off the coup launched on Friday.
</code></pre>
<a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2016/07/19/politics/us-nuclear-weapons-turkey-attempted-coup/index.html" rel="nofollow">http://edition.cnn.com/2016/07/19/politics/us-nuclear-weapon...</a>
Erdogan will push anti-american and anti-european feelings cause it's always a good thing for dictators to look like the victims. They look like being attacked from outside so they can purge and get the nationalist feeling up, they are the saviors and defenders of the state and the pride. Basic dictatorship 101
If you skipped the article and went right to the comments, the point of the piece is that Turkey blaming America for coups is nothing new, and that Erdogan remains a problematic leader for the country.
Honestly, I wonder whats been taking so long for US leadership to understand that Erdogan has never been fond of Turkey being part "the west".<p>According to Erdogan, "crimes against humanity" are things like "Zionism" (or Israel) or "Turkish emmigrants integrating into [German] society" while the Sudanese president (acutally convicted for crimes against humanity) is not, because he's a muslim. Also the Armenian Genocide isn't one, nor the one against the Kurds. The EU is a "christian club" which is why "Turkey should stay out of it".<p>The two predecessors of his Party AKP were both outlawed and deemed unconstitutional because of such traits like sympathizing with jihadism. Quite an impressive CV for an "ally".
Turkey seems to be turning against american values too with the recent "Turkey bans all academics from travel" announcement. It's like something out of Stalinist Russia.
For the most part, America had nothing to do with the coup attempt and had no idea that it was about to happen. Honestly, the majority of Americans couldn't find Turkey on a map even if you centered the map on Turkey. However, I certainly wouldn't be surprised if a few CIA types provided assistance like they've been known (or suspected) to do in South America and other parts of the world. The US government clearly benefits from Turkey having a more secular government and Erdogan is moving the government towards more Islamic rule.<p>So I'm just guessing that in a few weeks a classified document will be leaked that some portion of the US government was involved in the coup attempt and American citizens will all be embarrassed that we can't let other sovereign nations deal with their own business.<p>I hope that it doesn't hurt our relations so much that it hurts any innocent civilians or that we restrict travel. I hear Turkey has some cool castles and is a very interesting place to visit. It's relatively inexpensive and I'd like to go there one day.
I just finished reading last Chomsky book and that kind of post tastes so differently now.<p>For example, that sentence is really strange:<p><i>From the American perspective, Turkey has never been fully committed to the war against Islamist groups in Syria.</i>
The Turkish government needs to do this because the population generally has quite anti-US sentiments, and they are already vulnerable as the coup showed. Continuing to publically stand with the US would be politically very dangerous for them.
The question is, will America turn against Turkey, too, or are the threats to exclude them out of NATO just empty ones?<p>It will also be interesting to see if the EU will condemn this "democratic regime" they were so quick to defend after the coup.
And now this is happening: <a href="https://www.rt.com/news/352148-wikileaks-turkey-government-emails/" rel="nofollow">https://www.rt.com/news/352148-wikileaks-turkey-government-e...</a>
Turkey is strategically valuable enough that I doubt much is going to change on a macro scale. Both sides will be cranky at each other for awhile, deals will be made, and everything will more or less go back to "normal."<p>It's like how no one is willing to take care of the North Korea problem because leaving it alone is less of a headache than the alternative.
Turkey is a very dangerous country. It has a large and powerful military, it could probably take over half the middle East if it wanted, and big parts of Eastern Europe. It would also like to take a bite out of Russia if Putin didn't have thousands of nukes. Let's hope they sway back to a secular, moderate nation.
Turkey is a sovereign country, and its policies should be determined by majority of its people. If, for example it decides to become another Saudi Arabia, so be it - no amount of international meddling is going to help. I'm sure Turks know how they want to live without the whole world whispering into their ears.
If it's true this time, it wouldn't be too surprising.<p><a href="http://foreignpolicy.com/2013/08/20/mapped-the-7-governments-the-u-s-has-overthrown/" rel="nofollow">http://foreignpolicy.com/2013/08/20/mapped-the-7-governments...</a>
You may find it informative to read
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980_Turkish_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat#American_involvement" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980_Turkish_coup_d%27%C3%A9ta...</a><p>for some context.
In the last 24 hours - decapitation of the educational system (thank god, so far figuratively), cases of book burning - video is going viral as we speak, limitation of free travel of scientists, crackdown (even more) on media.<p>We are getting a dictatorship evolving in real time. If you are in the Balkans and hope that NATO will protect you - France and UK betrayed Czechoslovakia and Poland pre WWII and it has never been tested if US will go to war for its NATO obligations over the smaller countries.
Could someone paste the article to a paste bin, or instruct me on how to read the article for free? Evidently I've read too many articles on economist.com without a subscription, and they won't let me view this one without paying for it.
I'm so tired of Turkey's shit. It's thanks to them that the only workable way to reconstruct Iraq (a three-state solution) was impossible because they would throw a tantrum about an independent Kurdistan.
To add color, here Turks boo moment of silence for French victims:<p>- <a href="http://tinyurl.com/zdht2aq" rel="nofollow">http://tinyurl.com/zdht2aq</a>
Oh nice. The white European blaming is already starting.<p>Let's forget that the majority of Turks elected a half-mad men that bases his discourse in the superiority of Islam and in the ethnical cleansing of Kurdistan.<p>Let's forget that Erdogan supported the Islamic state.<p>Let's forget that the Turks re-elected him after all this.<p>Let's forget all these pro-Erdogan demonstrations going on in the streets of Ankara and Istambul right now, just as the guy wants to re-implement capital punishment and is sacking judges, deans, policeman and military as he pleases.<p>Let's forget that Erdogan is bombing the only guys that are opposing the Islamic State in the field right this moment.<p>No, let's instead do what all the cool kids do and blame the West. Cause you know... in the end, it's always the West that must get to be blamed for all evils of the world.
"half-mad" does not imply "mentally ill". I understand it's popular in the US, but please stop redefining terms to suit your narrative.
The Americans/Russians/Iranians should send him a cruise missle present.<p>This is like Afghanistan in the 80s, all over again. We should have let the Russians keep them in check, and here we are, arming the wrong side the entire time.<p>Good times.
Turkey has turned over hundreds of American citizens who were caught trying to cross over to Syria. This is due to the criminal exchange agreement.<p>America like always, behaves as if no rules, no agreements, no pacts, no UN decisions matter to them. They are the big guys above everything. They denied handing the person accused of treason to Turkey.<p>The title should be.. "This time its Turkey: America deceives... again"
Why Turkey is against US?<p>Simple: US started or participated in every war in last 50 years, so maybe they started coup in Turkey also?<p>US shows himself as a good guy, lawyer, builder, developer, savior and etc, etc. But in reality government of US (not people!) is war machine, as a bonus Hillary is a WARMACHINE (with big, bold letters)<p>So what do you expect from Turkey?<p>What US government loves:
- torturing
- oil
- mass surveillance
- killing innocent for the sake of their dual-faced democracy (even US government doesn't practice real democracy)
- and many more<p>So what do you expect from other countries?
Love? hell, no, what kind of love could be towards such shit guys.<p>I am only talking about US government not about people, I have lots of friends from there.