I have never liked Turkey's President Erdogan. He has always struck me as a leader who apes our Republican Party by forcing his dogma onto people who do not want it. Therefore, I paused when I first heard last night that a coup was underway to consider what position I should take on it. I quickly decided to oppose the attempted coup, and subsequently learned that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton opposed it too. This morning I learned that it has failed.
Forces loyal to Turkey's government fought on Saturday to crush the last remnants of a military coup attempt which collapsed after crowds answered President Tayyip Erdogan's call to take to the streets and dozens of rebels abandoned their tanks.
One hundred and sixty-one people were killed, including many civilians, after a faction of the armed forces tried to seize power using tanks and attack helicopters. Some strafed the headquarters of Turkish intelligence and parliament in the capital, Ankara, and others seized a major bridge in Istanbul.
Erdogan accused the coup plotters of trying to kill him and launched a purge of the armed forces, which last used force to stage a successful coup more than 30 years ago.
"They will pay a heavy price for this," said Erdogan, who also saw off mass public protests against his rule three years ago. "This uprising is a gift from God to us because this will be a reason to cleanse our army."
A Turkish broadcaster reported that a purge of the judiciary was also underway…
From <Reuters>
I'm not happy with Erdogan's response, either. But my feelings about him have nothing to do with my decision to oppose the coup. As much as I'd like to see him out of power, military force is not the way to remove a democratically elected leader. I would also oppose a military coup against a Republican government here, unless that government prevented free elections. I hope the people of Turkey remove him at the ballot box. If they don't, it's their country.
On the other hand, several Republicans have implied support for the coup, saying that Obama opposed the coup, only because Obama is a Muslim. If Erdogan were a pseudo-Christian, instead of a Muslim, they'd oppose the coup in horror.
5 Responses to “Coup Fails in Turkey”
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Yes, if a military coup were the way to get rid of Republican leadership, I might still be in the military. But that is NOT the way to do it.
Erdogan's comment – "This uprising is a gift from God to us because this will be a reason to cleanse our army." – Doesn't that make anyone but me wonder whether the whole thing was a false flag?
http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/7/16/1548938/–188-arrest-warrants-issued-for-members-of-Turkey-s-supreme-courts-oh-yeah-there-was-a-COUP-alright
I know too little about this subject to make a reasoned comment, however, I agree that amilitary take over is not the answer. The citizens elected him, it is up to them to vote him out of office.
I agree with Edie. Democratically elected, then democratically turfed from office. Violence is not the answer — it just leads to more violence and destruction.
My husband and I were watching the news when the news of the coup came through Friday night and we've followed it into the early hours of Saturday morning. Turkey has known quite a few coups by the military in its time and strangely enough they've helped make Turkey the democracy it is today. As far as I can remember they have always relinquished power quite quickly to a secular government. This time the leadership of the coup again announced that they were intervening to protect human rights and people from a dictatorship, so we were a bit on the fence this time around. However, we abhor any military intervention and it's not the way, and can never be the way, to "save a democracy", as Egypt has shown. It is undemocratic and, as became apparent only later, it was a bloody coup at that, so we condemn it.
Things had gotten rather bad with freedom of speech, human rights, Erdogan's tinkering with laws and even the constitution to give himself more power and the strong Islamizing of law and government in what is in essence a secular country. Turkey is "at war" with the Turkish Kurds living in the east of the country and only last week reversed it politics in regard to Syria, stating it was seeking better relationships with that country, i.e. Assad. Until now Erdogan has been getting a lot of criticism from Western leaders for all of this. So given its history of similar coups and the way the country was headed, the coup – however ill-advised and wrong – wasn't really a surprise. And apparently it wasn't to the Turkish government either.
We followed the event closely and there were some striking aspects to it. Almost immediately the PM Yildirim – who only took over from PM Davutoglu last month after his resignation because of differences with Erdogan on changes to the constitution – stated that this coup was the work of only a fraction of the Military and that it would be contained and those involved punished. Erdogan came on air soon after and repeated the threats and blamed the coup on his opponent, Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, who has been living in the US since 1999 and who has been a strong Erdogan supporter until a few years ago. Erdogan then told his supporters to take to the streets and end the coup.
His supporters have followed suit and rapidly put an end to this very misguided coup. But it was indeed a gift from God for the Erdogan government because within a day they have arrested 6000 military, have sent 2745 judges home and arrested a number (188) of them and asked America to extradite Gülen, while also accusing the US of being in on the coup. The latter is a rather strange move as Obama and all EU leaders have quickly made their condemnation of the coup and their support for "the democratically chosen president" public. So 'US Secretary Kerry has his Turkish counterpart Cavusoglu warned of a deterioration of the relationship between the United States and Turkey, if that country continues to make "public insinuations and allegations of a US role" in the coup attempt Friday.'
Erdogan has kept his followers on their toes too with warnings of a possible second coup attempt, but after a full day of demonstrations they seem to have had enough and the streets and squares are empty again and Istanbul and Ankara are even more quiet than usual this Sunday morning.
So if you ask if this was a false flag, Joanne, I'm not in the position to answer that, but I have to admit I see a lot of red flags. The speed of developments during the coup and thereafter is astonishing and does give the impression that the Turkish government at least knew what was coming and was well prepared for it. In the end the coup may well facilitate establishing of a Erdogan dictatorship, the exact opposite it set out to accomplish and for which so much blood has flown.
Thanks all. Major Kudos to Lona.
I agree, trhat there is no direct evidence of a false flag, but too many suspicious details to rule it out.
Hugs!