Coup in Turkey?

[jomni]

Erdogan claimed the resort he was in was bombed. But he left the place before the strike.

[steve58]

...and "the cleansing (operation) is continuing" stated "Justice" Minister Bekir Bozdag.

[Nefaro]

I'msurprised the secular Kemalite Turkish military leadership hadn't attempted to oust the Islamist supporting Turk Presidency years ago.  Figured the military was excessively infiltrated by supporters of Erdogan's Islamist dictatorship ideals by now. 

This must've been a last feeble attempt by the ever-dwindling secular faction in the military.  Which probably should've been done long before Erdogan got the presidency, as their leadership has been sliding into Islamist tyranny since before he went from PM to Prez.  Too little too late.  :-\

Bozdag also said he was confident that the United States would return Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen to Turkey. The Turkish president has blamed Gulen and his followers for the failed military coup on Friday night, but Gulen has denied any involvement in or knowledge about the attempted coup. The U.S. says it will look at any evidence Turkey has to offer against Gulen, and judge accordingly.

I hope our Idiot-In-Charge isn't thinking about assisting the Erdogan's purges by sending ex-pats on the Erdogan hitlist back there to be tortured and killed.  It's been plain, for years, that Turkey's leadership isn't interested in assisting it's NATO allies, and has been working against them in some cases.  But I wouldn't put any stupidity past our current Admin.

[bayonetbrant]

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/18/world/middleeast/turkey-allows-resumption-of-us-missions-from-incirlik-air-base.html?_r=0

The fun part was when the Turkish gov't cordoned off the air base where the US has some nukes stored.  As if they were ever going to get their hands on them...

[Gusington]

OMFG

[Pinetree]

..And the purges continue. The last paragraph worries me greatly:

Erdogan said on Sunday after the failed coup attempt that there could be no delay in using capital punishment, which Turkey abolished in 2004, and the government would discuss it with opposition parties.

Damn, just damn. I spent a month backpacking there back in '99 and fell in love with the place and people. The Turks used to pride themselves on their secularism and Ataturk was revered. There were statues and portraits of him everywhere. I once spent a night talking to a bar owner in Eceabat (A town close to the Gallipoli battlefields) and he showed me his illustrated book on Ataturk that he treasured. It really saddens me to see what is happening there.

[Gusington]

Just read on CNN that Germany has threatened an end to EU negoiations with Turkey if the death penalty is reintroduced.

[Sir Slash]

I too mourn the death of democracy in Turkey. I've never been there but have always had an affinity with the what seems like the only sensible Muslim country in the world-- I know I've left out a few others. It also saddens me to see how few people care about it in the US though we do have a lot else on our plates right now.

[steve58]

Turkey's ministry of education announced Tuesday it sacked 15,200 personnel, including 1,577 university deans, for alleged involvement with a group the government claims plotted Friday's deadly failed coup, in the latest mass crackdown against government workers there.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2016/07/19/turkeys-education-ministry-reportedly-fires-15200-for-ties-to-failed-coup.html

Oh my, wonder who Erdogan is going to get to replace all those teachers.  Islamic clerics, perhaps?

[Staggerwing]

That's why he removed all the secular judges first- so no one could sue to keep his or her job.

[Sir Slash]

Anybody think maybe he's going too far and too fast? Will Turkey have a "Muslim Brotherhood" moment like Egypt?

[MetalDog]

WaPo weighs in on the possible aftermath:


https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/07/19/why-there-are-so-many-conspiracy-theories-about-the-turkish-coup/

[Boggit]

Anyone wondering whether this whole coup thing was a sham, set up so Erdogan could eliminate his political opponents and achieve full autocratic rule? When you think about it:

1. He was out of the country, so couldn't get hurt by the rebels;
2. The military leadership seem very incompetent for many of his top brass;
3. Mobs beat the military? You see a tank charging and stopping before a mob on the BBC  reports. Why did it not just flatten them?
4. All the judges removed, now 15,000 teachers. Were the teachers involved in training the next generation of coup leaders? >:D

All in all the more you think it through the more it stinks. I'm beginning to think it was a put up job to entrench Erdogan.

[Nefaro]

All in all the more you think it through the more it stinks. I'm beginning to think it was a put up job to entrench Erdogan.

Yup.

The surprisingly quick blacklisting and removal of thousands of teachers, judges, etc definitely points to it being pre-arranged.

Preemptive takeover.

[SirAndrewD]

Anyone wondering whether this whole coup thing was a sham, set up so Erdogan could eliminate his political opponents and achieve full autocratic rule? When you think about it:

1. He was out of the country, so couldn't get hurt by the rebels;
2. The military leadership seem very incompetent for many of his top brass;
3. Mobs beat the military? You see a tank charging and stopping before a mob on the BBC  reports. Why did it not just flatten them?
4. All the judges removed, now 15,000 teachers. Were the teachers involved in training the next generation of coup leaders? >:D

All in all the more you think it through the more it stinks. I'm beginning to think it was a put up job to entrench Erdogan.

I don't often go in on conspiracy theories, but this one really is looking to be more and more likely. 

Any coup has to immediately take away the government's ability to communicate, and has to swiftly decapitate the government's leadership to be successful.  The coup in Turkey didn't even come close to achieving those goals.  You'd think that anyone willing to pull a trigger on a coup would at least be partly successful at some of that, even in failure.

It's either the worst planned coup in history, or Erdogan was either behind it, or knew it was coming and let it occur while taking measures to assure it would fail.