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After the coup, Turkey turns against America

economist.com

11–20 of 298 posts

Re: After the coup, Turkey turns against America

#12

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.

> because the population generally has quite anti-US sentiments

Are you assuming that population spontaneously acquires "anti-US sentiments"?

I would attribute it to some kind of propaganda campaign, therefore cause and effect will be switched.

Re: After the coup, Turkey turns against America

#13
The question is, will America turn against Turkey, too, or are the threats to exclude them out of NATO just empty ones?

It will also be interesting to see if the EU will condemn this "democratic regime" they were so quick to defend after the coup.

Re: After the coup, Turkey turns against America

#15

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.

> because the population generally has quite anti-US sentiments Are you assuming that population spontaneously acquires "anti-US sentiments"? I would attribute it to some kind of propaganda campaign, therefore cause and effect will be switched.

Or just maybe they have seen the outcome of two American wars on Islamic nations and reached their own conclusions?

Re: After the coup, Turkey turns against America

#16
post #13

The question is, will America turn against Turkey, too, or are the threats to exclude them out of NATO just empty ones? It will also be interesting to see if the EU will condemn this "democratic regime" they were so quick to defend after the coup.

The president of the European Parliament followed up his "we support the democratically elected government" tweet with another tweet condemning that same government's actions following the failed coup, so that already happened.

I'm also not sure how realistic losing Turkey as a NATO member is. They are in a strategic position that makes it worth to put up with most of their nonsense.

Re: After the coup, Turkey turns against America

#17
post #8

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.

There publicly holding hands, and then there is accusing the US of plotting a coup. Between these two extremes is a vast middle ground they could occupy. If anything the government are fanning the flames, not the other way around. Shoot down a Russian plane and then months later accuse the USA of a plot while arresting thousands of judges ... I worry that this is all the start of something really, really terrible.

We've been in the middle of something really, really terrible, for rather a few decades, and are not really coherently dealing with it - in the 'royal we', as I personally can state my bit of it - very well.

There is a big rush to try to get the world to peacefully co-exist, and technology is doing that. Seriously.

At the head of all of the chaos of military action, is a technological breakthrough that cannot be weaponized. We're all still looking for it, because its in the mix, somewhere, but in the meantime: technology of death and warfare is way, way ahead of us.

Quick, invent something socially amazing, that cannot be weaponized, and will get everyone - of any nation state and language and cultural background - working and playing and co-existing, together. Its really the only thing we can do while this crazy stuff goes down.

Perhaps there is a new rule to be tested, which goes thus: "no two nations which had a functional Pokemon Go community ever went to war with each other" ...

Re: After the coup, Turkey turns against America

#18
post #7

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 be…

You need to make some incredible leaps to assume the USA would be backing a poorly organized coup against a very valuable, even vital, NATO ally.

Knowing the CIA's recent performance, most likely they heard about it from watching Fox News.

Re: After the coup, Turkey turns against America

#19
post #9
post #5

I just finished reading last Chomsky book and that kind of post tastes so differently now. For example, that sentence is really strange: From the American perspective, Turkey has never been fully committed to the war against Islamist groups in Syria.

That is a strange statement. From my perspective, America hasn't been either (if anything, the opposite)!

So I'm not the only to hallucinate? A few years ago, the goal was to make fall Bachar by any way, no?

It's so sad that a Nobel Peace Prize has the worst foreign policy ever.

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