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Licenses of 21,000 Turkish teachers have been revoked

reuters.com

71–80 of 144 posts

Re: Licenses of 21,000 Turkish teachers have been revoked

#71
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This happened before in Iran's revolution, School Deans, and even Hospital Directors were replaced by pro-revolution islamists regardless of education or qualifications. We might see Turkey transform itself into what Iran became. After this they need a War (a la Iraq-Iran war) to keep people distracted and then the changes will be permanent.

The problem with that plan is that Turkey has only one equal on its borders (Iran), and cooking up a cassus belli (supporting the Rojava Kurds & the Syrian government...?) there isn't going to be easy. Everyone else is either friendly (Azerbaijan), an overmatch (Russia & NATO), or a pushover but with overmatching alliances (Armenia & Syria). I suppose they'll have to settle for a Kurdish insurgency...

They have some territorial disputes with Greece and an extant DMZ in Cyprus.

Re: Licenses of 21,000 Turkish teachers have been revoked

#72
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This happened before in Iran's revolution, School Deans, and even Hospital Directors were replaced by pro-revolution islamists regardless of education or qualifications. We might see Turkey transform itself into what Iran became. After this they need a War (a la Iraq-Iran war) to keep people distracted and then the changes will be permanent.

The problem with that plan is that Turkey has only one equal on its borders (Iran), and cooking up a cassus belli (supporting the Rojava Kurds & the Syrian government...?) there isn't going to be easy. Everyone else is either friendly (Azerbaijan), an overmatch (Russia & NATO), or a pushover but with overmatching alliances (Armenia & Syria). I suppose they'll have to settle for a Kurdish insurgency...

There's Syria/ISIS next door, we'll see. Some military interventions and a lot of TV fear propaganda would do the job.

Re: Licenses of 21,000 Turkish teachers have been revoked

#73
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> totalitarian Probably the most misused term/epithet in international relations. At its worst Turkey is no more repressive than Russia or China and less repressive than Iran. Once you use "totalitarian" to describe authoritarian regimes, you run out of room to describe those that actually qualify as totalitarian, such as North Korea or Eritrea.

"Very totalitarian" vs "somewhat totalitarian".

> "somewhat totalitarian"

There's already a term for that. Authoritarian.

Re: Licenses of 21,000 Turkish teachers have been revoked

#74

The coup was a last chance effort. Now Turkey has become a totalitarian dictatorship, there is no doubt about that. To be more precise, it already lost its status as democracy years ago when Erdogan had hundreds of prosecutors and policemen fired who dared to investigate corruption within his family. But with the latest purges you've got to wonder where they want to get the replacements from. Any sane person will pro…

> NEVER trust or vote for a party that has the word "justice" in its name.

You are so right on this. Last elections in Poland (EU member) were won by "Law and Justice" party and it is authoritarian party.

Re: Licenses of 21,000 Turkish teachers have been revoked

#77
post #19
post #9

It's starting to seem like they had these lists made up ahead of time and have been waiting for the right time to start cleansing the ranks.

Starting? That was clear when they purged the first few thousand.

Yes, "starting" may be too charitable, but the first few thousand were military, so it was at least plausible that they were tagged for actual involvement with the coup.

Re: Licenses of 21,000 Turkish teachers have been revoked

#78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The coup was never real to begin with. There have been so many holes in this narrative that it's like swiss cheese. Why did the military not fire on Erdogan when he was in their sights? Why did Erdogan even risk flying into Istanbul when he knew there would've been a significant chance of being shot down? The answer of course is that he knew there was no risk cause it was a fake coup to begin with.

He wanted to consolidate his power and it was a really smart and ruthless move. It kind of shuts down the potential for any real coup to happen.

Perhaps in the short term.

The military in Turkey has been infiltrated for decades, but I'm sure some of the military are now just biding there time. It wouldn't be hard for even a few lone actors to take out the president. AKA two jet pilots and an informant.

Re: Licenses of 21,000 Turkish teachers have been revoked

#79

The coup was a last chance effort. Now Turkey has become a totalitarian dictatorship, there is no doubt about that. To be more precise, it already lost its status as democracy years ago when Erdogan had hundreds of prosecutors and policemen fired who dared to investigate corruption within his family. But with the latest purges you've got to wonder where they want to get the replacements from. Any sane person will pro…

There are some recent parallels to your opening paragraph that feel deafening...

Re: Licenses of 21,000 Turkish teachers have been revoked

#80
post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think anyone claims Russia or China are democratic. Nor are we planning to add them to the EU or NATO anytime soon.

> Nor are we planning to add them to the EU or NATO anytime soon. Well, neither is on the North Atlantic or in Europe. Okay well, Russia sort of is, but...

Russia has just as much claim to being European as Turkey does.
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