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Coup attempt underway in Turkey

theatlantic.com

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Re: Coup attempt underway in Turkey

#21

Post by calibraxis »

For about a year, some openly suspected Erdogan frustrated the US enough for them to foment a coup. The US gov't loudly signaled its displeasure: "Early on, Obama saw Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the president of Turkey, as the sort of moderate Muslim leader who would bridge the divide between East and West—but Obama now considers him a failure and an authoritarian, one who refuses to use his enormous army to bring stability to Syria." (http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/04/the-obam...)

(I haven't yet seen any evidence regarding the US's role is in this coup, if any. I just mention this as a prominent example of how much he frustrates even his allies, so it's natural for many to go to the trouble of replacing him, despite all the risks.)

Re: Coup attempt underway in Turkey

#22

Post by zygomega »

tuna-piano wrote: post #18

Does anyone have an explanation, or a link to an explanation for all the happenings in Turkey? I'm an occasional follower of this kind of stuff, but it would be great to understand the full situation in Turkey in an easily digestible way. 1. The current coup 2. The president's history 3. The different terrorist groups operating within the country and their beliefs and goals 4. Turkey's legal system and freedoms allow…

The army is secular. Every 20 years they remove some dictator or zealot that the system seems to throw up regularly. I'm not sure if there's been a split in the armed forces before, but the police always cop a hammering.

Re: Coup attempt underway in Turkey

#23

Post by jvm »

whack wrote: 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…

Sed quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

Re: Coup attempt underway in Turkey

#25

Post by hasenj »

dzdt wrote: post #19
scarmig wrote: 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…

Its not even clear yet who the sides are. Erdoğan released a statement that Gülen supporters (a religious group) were behind the coup, while the military seems to be claiming it is a secular coup, and has not named a leader behind it.

I agree with GP. Erdogan is clearly trying to create confusion. If it really was a small faction, things would be under control by now.

Re: Coup attempt underway in Turkey

#26

Post by niftich »

tuna-piano wrote: post #18

Does anyone have an explanation, or a link to an explanation for all the happenings in Turkey? I'm an occasional follower of this kind of stuff, but it would be great to understand the full situation in Turkey in an easily digestible way. 1. The current coup 2. The president's history 3. The different terrorist groups operating within the country and their beliefs and goals 4. Turkey's legal system and freedoms allow…

Wikipedia is actually a really good source for this kind of info, but since it's technically editable by anyone, I'll try to give you three other sources from three different countries:

[1] BBC's country profile on Turkey: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-17988453

[2] CIA's world factbook on Turkey: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/...

[3] Aljazeera's country profile on Turkey, from 2011: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/spotlight/turkeyelection/20...

Re: Coup attempt underway in Turkey

#27

Post by vmorgulis »

dzdt wrote: post #19
scarmig wrote: 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…

Its not even clear yet who the sides are. Erdoğan released a statement that Gülen supporters (a religious group) were behind the coup, while the military seems to be claiming it is a secular coup, and has not named a leader behind it.

The both can be true.

I think the coup is related to the recent position of Erdogan towards Russia.

Re: Coup attempt underway in Turkey

#28

Post by zygomega »

scarmig wrote: 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…

He's sending them out to die perhaps, in his name. Is he out there? Not a nice move.

Re: Coup attempt underway in Turkey

#30

Post by ethanbond »

tuna-piano wrote: post #18

Does anyone have an explanation, or a link to an explanation for all the happenings in Turkey? I'm an occasional follower of this kind of stuff, but it would be great to understand the full situation in Turkey in an easily digestible way. 1. The current coup 2. The president's history 3. The different terrorist groups operating within the country and their beliefs and goals 4. Turkey's legal system and freedoms allow…

The linked Atlantic article is REALLY robust. It's not just a Twitter feed!
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