Did Russia provide intelligence? It's possible. It surely would have been beneficial to them to do so....Following up on yesterday's info packed post:Military Coup in Turkey- Destabilization to Coup - No surprise hereIMPORTANT: Indicative of prior knowledge!
AnonymousJuly 13, 2016 at 8:26 AM
France on Wednesday said it had closed its embassy in the Turkish capital Ankara and its consulate in Istanbul until further notice for security reasons, after cancelling events to mark the July 14 Bastille Day holiday.Delete
gallier2July 16, 2016 at 2:23 AMWhat annoys me, is that I saw the news on the 13th of France closing its ambassy and recalling its personnel from Turkeyhttp://www.rfi.fr/europe/20160715-turquie-france-ferme-jusqu-nouvel-ord… should have send you this link as it was a good indication that something was afoot.ReplyDelete
Looks as if France had prior knowledge of the coup.The media is claiming today the coup began late in the afternoon in Turkey- Based on the reports from yesterday- the coup got started in the morning- By around dinner time here (est) the military had announced it was in control, instituting marital law and a curfew- this is when the news, here in Canada, began covering the coup. It appears the media is taking the announcement of martial law and curfew as the beginning of the coup- That makes no sense. The military would only make a martial law/curfew type of announcement once they felt they had things under enough control to really get the entire government under their sway. Prior to this announcement it was all Nice, France all day. Making the even in Nice a multi purpose distraction..There are conflicting casualty counts- However it does seem well over 100 persons were killed.Going by yesterday’s reporting and today’s this was not a move supported by all in the military and police. And certainly not a move supported by the Turkish people! Who defied the curfew and martial law. Most reports are claiming tens of thousands of people were out in the streets opposed to the coup. It was most probably a very substantial number of people outdoors. Very, very large numbers of people in the streets would make this coup to overthrow the elected gov a hard to sell occurrence. From a PR perspective- If you want to make the elected government look the bad guy and the military look the saviour you can’t have the coup plotters gunning down thousands of people who are opposed the the coup,What’s next? Overall the western media is portraying exasperation and disappointmentAccording to Robert Fisk and the Independent: Another coupTurkey's coup may have failed – but history shows that it won't be long before another one succeedsHe talks about Erdogan being unable to trust his army- which is correct. No Turkish leader can truth that military entirely- He then launches the usual diatribe against the elected leadership. Claiming a military junta/martial law is preferable to Erdogan’s alleged authoritarian ways. I’m missing the advantages to military junta and martial law?Israeli media is implying the coup was an Erdogan plot! No doubt much of the alt media is spinning this too. Without evidence. Everything is always an Erdogan plot. Every bombing is an Erdogan plot. This is an Erdogan plot. That is an Erdogan plot- Without proof. Crying wolf is a bore. Back the claims up for cripes sakes!
“Experts say (appeal to authority) the coup attempt by a small number of the military could shore up the president’s power, and even speculate that this was a false flag operation that aimed to achieve that exact goal”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks to the media Saturday, July 16, 2016 in Istanbul, after a military coup against his government failed. (screen capture: YouTube)
According to Aykan Erdemir, senior fellow at Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington, the coup was a result of many factors including the military’s fear of the new system. (not sure what that means)
Political parties do not have “fond memories” of the previous coup d’etats given their bitter experiences under military rulers, said Erdemir.
Erdemir said the era of successful coups — as in 1960, 1971 and 1980 — is over with the public largely hostile to the prospect.
That's what I'm seeing- the Turkish public is very hostile to the prospect of more coups!Hence the large turnouts and the thwarting of the coup- I will post a piece at the end by M.K. Bhadrakumar expanding on this.A Turkish military helicopter has landed in northern Greece where its crew has requested political asylum.
Local reports suggest the crew are part of the faction of the Turkish military that attempted to overthrow President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government in a coup on Friday night.Greece’s defence ministry has confirmed seven military personnel and one civilian landed in a Blackhawk military helicopter in Alexandroupoli and requested asylum.
More on the Coup plotters fleeing to Greece:Link:
Greek authority's gave direct permission to the helicopters crew to approach the airport and provided all relevant meteorological information and the runway in use. At the same time, two Greek fighter jets took off to accompany the Black Hawk.
Military escort to guarantee a safe landing for those involved with the coup!Greece- another NATO nation, of course. Who were these people? 7 military and 1 civilian. We’re they all Turks? CuriousIran supports the elected government of Turkey : They’ve good relations and a multiple common enemies:
Iran, Turkey's neighbour and regional rival, said on Saturday it fully supported the Turkish government against an attempted military coup and expressed concern about its implications.President Hassan Rouhani chaired a meeting of the National Security Council on Saturday to discuss the latest developments in Turkey, where loyalist troops were fighting to crush the remnants of a coup attempt launched on Friday night."We support Turkey's legal government and oppose any type of coup - either initiated domestically or supported by foreigners," National Security Council secretary Ali Shamkhani said after the meeting, quoted by state news agency IRNA.
European Leaders Condemn Coup and Chastize the Turkish Government
Messages of support also followed by appeal to respect political freedoms rather than launch a crackdown
Would they respect political freedoms after surviving a coup? Do European leaders respect political freedoms now?Turkey might re-introduce the death penalty to deal with coup plottersIf Turkey is an authoritarian state with an authoritarian leader-...Why don’t they have the death penalty? The US does. Wouldn’t that make the US vastly more authoritarian! Claims it might be reintroduced don’t wash- It won’t bephoto at sputnikTurkish Frigate seized by Coup Supporters (why not use the word plotters?)Why is Sputnik using the very neutral term of "supporters". Always thinking of language employed to create perceptions. It certainly lets the perps off easy, no?Winners, losers in Turkey’s coup bid By M.K. Bhadrakumar on July 16, 2016Read it entirely- I'll highlight some points of interest
The bloody coup attempt in Turkey by a section of the military has failed and the night of the long knives is about to begin. The geopolitics of the coup makes it inevitable that reverberations will be felt far and wide beyond Turkey.
Was Erdogan thinking about sniper fire?
The narrative that this has been an eruption of disgruntled generals and colonels who rebelled against an authoritarian leader is far too simplistic. The target was undoubtedly Erdogan, but the agenda is more complicated than that.The dramatic events are bound to impact Turkey’s regional and international role in all its dimensions.
One thing can be said with absolute certainty at the outset: this was not a coup attempt by the ‘Kemalists’ who sought to make a desperate move to roll back the tide of political Islam and remove President Recep Erdogan from power. The two main opposition leaders of the principal Kemalist party and the nationalist party respectively have voiced strong solidarity with the democratic forces.
That, in turn, means that the immensely popular Turkish leader at the moment enjoys the sympathy from a wider spectrum of Turkish opinion than the 51% mandate, which the ruling Justice & Development Party secured in the 2014 parliamentary poll.
It seems that yes, Erdogan has the support of vastly more of the populace then our media ever portrays- However, that has been pointed out on a number of occasions here
The overwhelming majority of Turkish people do not want their country to relive its past history with the Pashas systematically subverting the supremacy of elected civilian leaderships.Erdogan surely senses that he is on the right side of history and he can be expected to take advantage of it in the coming hours, days and weeks. This is one thing.However, the most ominous thing is that the government has pointed the finger at the followers of the US-based Turkish Islamist leader Fetullah Gulen for staging the abortive coup. (Gulen, unsurprisingly, has rejected the allegation.)
The state-run Anadolu news agency has pointedly named one Colonel Muharrem Kose who was dishonourably discharged from the Turkish military in March 2016 for his alleged links with Gulen, as the leader of the coup attempt.The Justice Minister also said on the state television that Gulen’s supporters have staged the abortive coup.It is 100% certain that the government will launch a massive purge against the followers of Gulen in the various agencies of the government and the armed forces and the judiciary.Erdogan has been seeking the extradition of Gulen from the United States and this will now become a pressing demand, which Washington will have to contend with.
And the US has not be willing to extradite their man to Turkey
And herein hangs a tale.The point is, there has always been this suspicion in the Turkish mind that Gulen worked for the US intelligence.A memoir by the former Turkish intelligence chief Osman Nuri Gundes (who served under Erdogan), published in 2011, actually alleged that Gulen’s world-wide Islamic movement based in Pennsylvania provided cover for the Central Intelligence Agency, especially in the former Soviet republics in Central Asia.
Interestingly, Russia subsequently banned Gulen’s ‘Hizmet’ schools’. So did Uzbekistan.
Although Gulen fled Turkey in 1998 for the US, he obtained a residence permit only in 2008 and Turks have insistently claimed that his application for ‘green card’ was recommended by two top CIA officials. (It must be noted Gulen never once traveled outside the US in the past 18 years since he landed on American soil, although his network has worldwide operations.)
To be sure, against the backdrop of the abortive coup, Gulen’s role will cast a shadow on the Turkey-US relations, which have already suffered setbacks on various counts in the most recent years during Erdogan’s rule.
The big question is how far the coup attempt would have been motivated by Erodgan’s foreign policies. That there could be such a dimension cannot be easily overlooked.Gulen has voiced strong disapproval of many controversial aspects of Erdogan’s regional policies such as the decline in Turkey’s relations with Israel and his handling of the Kurdish problem or the Turkish intervention in Syria.
Curiously, the coup attempt coincides with the nascent trends of a shift in the Turkish foreign policies – in particular, in the direction of a rapprochement with Russia and a possible rollback of Ankara’s interventionist policies in Syria.
Did Russia provide Turkey with any intelligence regarding the coup?- We got Kerry dangling carrots in front of Russia presently- Did Russia up end the US.
The coup, had it succeeded, would have scuttled a possible meeting between Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin in the coming weeks that holds the potential to be a defining moment in the Syrian conflict.Moscow factors in that the normalization with Turkey could have positive fall-outs on the situation in Syria. Ankara has also hinted at a readiness to re-establish ties with Syria. (Significantly, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Zarif has used exceptionally strong language to condemn the coup attempt in Turkey – even before it was decisively crushed.)All things taken into consideration, therefore, Turkey’s possible change of course is being anticipated in Moscow and Tehran as a geopolitical event of momentous consequence to the realignment in Middle East politics and the overall balance of forces.Meanwhile, Turkey, a major NATO power, is a regional partner that the West also cannot do without for pursuing an effective Middle East strategy. Of course, Erdogan has not been an easy partner to deal with – and on his part, he also remains suspicious of the western intentions.Conceivably, the newfound proximity between Turkey and Russia will necessitate a reset of the entire calculus of Western strategies as well. In fact, a reset becomes necessary as regards a host of issues – ranging from the regime change agenda in Syria and the fight against terrorism to the competing agendas of gas pipelines to feed the European market.The bottom line is that if it is proved – rather, once it is proved beyond doubt – that ‘Gulenists’ have staged the abortive coup attempt, Erdogan may only see a hidden hand of western intelligence to send him packing from Turkish politics.Clearly, Erdogan’s invocation of ‘people’s power’ to roll back the coup attempt has caught most US analysts by surprise. Howsoever unpalatable it might seem, the region and the ‘international community’ – especially the European Union and the US – will now have no option but to learn to live with an Erdogan who is in full cry.Erdogan’s propensity to plough independent foreign policies will only get more pronounced after this searing experience where he has barely escaped by the skin of his teeth.In particular, these events would constitute a major setback to the US’s agenda to establish a permanent NATO presence in the Black Sea to contain Russia.
Did Russia help Turkey in order to help themselves???Had the coup been successful the result would have been a dead Erdogan Last of the coup plotters rounded up this afternoon in Turkey- as I post this it is 11:35 am est but it is 6:35 pm in Turkey:hiding their faces
The final group of pro-coup Turkish military personnel surrendered Saturday afternoon, a security source said. Around 150 plotters, who are suspected of being members of the Fetullah Terrorist Organization, had been holding out at the headquarters of the General Staff and the nearby gendarmerie compound in central Ankara. Three prosecutors went to the headquarters to receive the surrender of the group, which included 13 high-ranking naval officers, the source said on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on speaking to the media. Two buses carried senior officers away while other ranks, many wearing just their underwear, were put on three buses to be taken to a sports hall in Baskent on the western edge of the capital. Riot police guarded the General Staff headquarters, which had been one of the focal points of Friday night’s coup attempt and where senior officers who refused to participate were held, including the Chief of the General Staff Gen. Hulusi Akar. The source said counter-terrorism officers would make detailed search of the compound, where earlier Saturday around 700 coup troops surrendered to police The government has said the coup bid was organized by followers of U.S.-based preacher Fetullah Gulen, who is accused of a long-standing campaign to overthrow the government through supporters within the Turkish state, particularly the military, police and judiciary.
2 UPDATES: 1:38 PM EST : Barack Obama convenes National Security meeting
The US President Barack Obama convenes a National Security meeting, after a military coup attempt in Turkey, reports Hurriyet, referring to the statement of the White House. According to the source, Obama will meet with the National Security and foreign policy team.
Interesting tweet supporting the coup11:03 p.m.
In the coup’s early hours, U.S. Representative Brad Sherman, a Democrat from California and a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, tweeted what seemed to be a message of support for those overthrowing the Turkish government.Military takeover in Turkey will hopefully lead to real democracy - not Erdogan Authoritarianism— Brad Sherman (@BradSherman) July 15, 2016
That tweet is still there! And it does not 'seem' to be a message of support- It is a message of support
Serdar Kilic, Turkey’s ambassador to the United States, fired back at Sherman a few hours later on Twitter.Shame on you. You should be ashamed of yourself for supporting a coup attempt and expecting democracy out of it pic.twitter.com/bBpy6qz3Mx— Serdar Kilic (@serdarkilic9) July 16, 2016