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Coup attempt underway in Turkey

theatlantic.com

231–240 of 375 posts

Re: Coup attempt underway in Turkey

#231
post #60
post #15

Anyone have a take on how successful this is likely to be? Both sides are claiming victory and that they've beaten the other side, naturally. Propaganda is everywhere. The only thing I figure is that since Erdogan is calling for a mass uprising in the streets, the status quo has him losing. He needs to radically change the dynamics of the situation to stay in power, and mass protests and displays of martyrdom in the…

No. Erdogan called for people to take to the streets, and within an hour, the airport and bridge were filled with thousands of people waving flags. (From pictures, all male.) That's popular support. The military is not attacking the crowds. The military presence was apparently not that big, concentrating on a few key spots. A coup has to succeed within the first few hours. Control must be established before oppositio…

> The military is not attacking the crowds.

There are reports to the contrary:

* https://www.yahoo.com/news/turkey-military-opens-fire-crowds...

* "Opening live fire from helicopter" (Google translation) video https://twitter.com/Havrekhshaeta/status/754050251909193728?...

* Parliament bombed, police officers killed https://twitter.com/NPR/status/754109568851017729

* Video of bombing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DP7JLKqB2yY

* Video from inside parliament when bomb hit https://twitter.com/Conflicts/status/754108677292982272

Foxtrot Alpha has ongoing aggregation:

http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/the-turkish-military-has-de...

Re: Coup attempt underway in Turkey

#232
post #10

"Modern Turkey was founded by Mustafa Kemal, a general in the Turkish Army who was later formally granted the surname “Ataturk,” or father of the Turks. Ataturk set about an aggressive program of modernizing and “Westernizing” the country, pushing religion to the margins, banning certain apparel like headscarves and fezes, and converting Turkish from Arabic to Latin script. But that secularism has always remained ten…

The U.S. separation of power is based on similar ideas. Congress makes laws on a day-by-day basis, but when the will of the people contradicts certain fundamental principles enshrined in the Constitution, the courts have a right to strike down and nullify laws.

The courts are also the weakest branch of government. They have no power to enforce any of their decisions and the other branches of government possess numerous "nuclear" options to sideline the courts (court-packing, impeachment).

The military is generally hardly weak in Turkey (although they have been weakened in the past 10 years by Erdogan).

Re: Coup attempt underway in Turkey

#233
post #208
post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely, I was talking about this with my wife yesterday. It's illegal for a women to go topless in France (but not a man), so how is a women covering her breasts any different than a woman covering her head? I can't imagine anything less welcoming than being a recent refugee or immgrant, and then in order to receive an education you are forced to break with a core tenet of your religious and cultural beliefs, and…

Not head, face .

Wrong, the head dress is banned in schools.

"The wearing of all conspicuous religious symbols in public schools was previously banned in 2004 by a different law"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_ban_on_face_covering

Re: Coup attempt underway in Turkey

#234
post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely, I was talking about this with my wife yesterday. It's illegal for a women to go topless in France (but not a man), so how is a women covering her breasts any different than a woman covering her head? I can't imagine anything less welcoming than being a recent refugee or immgrant, and then in order to receive an education you are forced to break with a core tenet of your religious and cultural beliefs, and…

> It's illegal for a women to go topless in France (but not a man) Is it? there are tons of topless women on French beaches. I don't know about specific laws but nobody goes topless or naked while walking in a city (in France or elsewhere). I don't see this as a great restriction on my freedom. Actually, more worrying IMHO is that if a woman were to go topless in the street, she'd get more trouble from some (religiou…

[deleted]

Re: Coup attempt underway in Turkey

#235

How do you define liberal? France's idea of "liberalism" is "follow our culture exactly or face heavy fines/punishment". They've basically turned their culture into a new religion

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12104519 and marked it off-topic.

Re: Coup attempt underway in Turkey

#236
post #193

News flash: Those in power and relying on laws, rules and democracy think it's a good idea it remains. Well it's completely obvious they would have this stance. I don't think they've really anything to add. Hopefully things stabilise one way or another over there, innocent people getting shot helps nobody. What's interesting though is whether this instability will affect Turkey's chances for a seat in the EU. I would…

Why would you like to see a Muslim country in the EU? Even without Turkey, we are trending in this direction.

Re: Coup attempt underway in Turkey

#237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having been brought up in a French system and then going to a US college, I must say I strongly prefer the French system. I guess Americans would take offense to this view, but I find wearing religious clothing in a public institution such as a school incredibly obnoxious and pushy -- it's akin to your professor suddenly starting to push his/her political views onto you in an unrelated lecture, or something. It's not…

> "I find wearing religious clothing in a public institution such as a school incredibly obnoxious and pushy -- it's akin to your professor suddenly starting to push his/her political views onto you in an unrelated lecture" But prohibiting the wearing of religious clothing IS pushing political views.

Not on a modern campus if it says Republican.

Re: Coup attempt underway in Turkey

#238

Why did people support Hitler? Why do people support Trump? Why do people support Putin? Some people aren't very concerned with democratic principles; some people like the policy agenda and are willing to sacrifice democratic principles in order to get the policies they want; some people are gullible and believe scapegoat arguments; some people, particularly in times of insecurity, seek out a "strong man".

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12104307 and marked it off-topic.

Re: Coup attempt underway in Turkey

#239
post #204
post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not that it's bad to wear religious clothing or have political opinions -- it's just that a school should be a place of learning, not propaganda. As an American, I think of nothing when people wear hijab or whatever, and trust me, I am an atheist who think religion is irrational and that humanity would be better off without it. Maybe the French would be better off thinking nothing of it when someone wears religi…

I am extremely sympathetic to this view as an American, but I think it is worthwhile to think of this from a native Frenchman's perspective. There has been a mass influx of "foreign" Muslim/Islamic peoples there over the past twenty-odd years that do not share western secular values for the most part, and are happy to impose their own views on the native population. If you were a native Frenchman, or a person in a si…

> "foreign"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:French_colonisation_i...

Re: Coup attempt underway in Turkey

#240
post #233
post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not head, face .

Wrong, the head dress is banned in schools. "The wearing of all conspicuous religious symbols in public schools was previously banned in 2004 by a different law" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_ban_on_face_covering

You understand the distinction between Islamic veils/headscarves (which clearly imply religious affiliation) and clearly non-religious, headscarves worn by many style-conscious, but secular, women?

Your misunderstanding may come from terminology - a headscarf need not be religious at all, and headscarves which are not religious (it is easy to tell the difference) are NOT banned.

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