Turkey military coup

[Angie]

http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/15/world/live-blog-turkey/

I offer no comment or opinion, I simply feel it important to spread the news.

[Lustful Bride]

I feel like either way this goes, it will badly affect the current Campaign against IS and give them breathing room to dig in their forces.

[Angie]

Little update: The anchor for CNN Turkey was just pulled off the air at gunpoint like two minutes ago.

[Lustful Bride]

There was just a Bomb Detonation in the Parliament building in Ankara, Turkey.

Oh God I hope this doesn't turn into a civil war.

[TheGlyphstone]

Doubt it. The coup faction appears to have very little popular support, which is a key element in any full-blown civil war. The worry is how much damage they'll do to Istanbul on their way down.

[Beguile's Mistress]

*nods*  It seems destruction, especially of iconic sites, is more common these days.

[Izu]

There are actually speculations that Erdogan is behind it - scare the people to earn back their votes. :/ And knowing his politics for the past decade I wouldn't be surprised if this was the truth.

[Cassandra LeMay]

There are actually speculations that Erdogan is behind it - scare the people to earn back their votes. :/ And knowing his politics for the past decade I wouldn't be surprised if this was the truth.

In all that speculation it may be worth remembering that Turkey has seen a number of coups over the last 50 years or so. They had one in 1960, one in 1971, then in 1980, and forcing the government to accept some new laws in 1997. (see Wikipedia) The Turkish military has always seen itself as something of a guardian of secularism in Turkey and while I would not call Erdogan an islamist, he does play with religious sentiment to maintain his power base. That some in the military would try to change the situation through military means is not entirely surprising, given Turkey's history. Speculating it might have been a false flag operation looks to me like it doesn't stand up to Occam's Razor.

Also, Erdogan accieved pretty much what you suggest when he played up on people's fears during the last election. For the moment his power base seems secure enough that a stunt like this would be unneccesary.

[Warlock]

Seems to be over, the coup failed.

A little less than a 100 people are confirmed dead, with 1100-1200 have been injured by coup, according to the state run Anadolu Agency. Numbers may change as the situation clears down.

[Norwegian One]

Well, to me this seems like another step on Turkey's path towards being a de facto dictatorship. What I envision will happen now:

- So far, news state that around 2800 people have been arrested in relation to the coup. My bet is that Erdogan will do another thorough purge of the military, like he has done before, and replace all central position with loyalists.
- There will likely be restrictions on free speech and social media to curb more unrest
- A central politician in the leading party has called for reinstating capital punishment. Regardless, heavy punishments will serve to discourage any further opposition against Erdogan
- He will likely consolidate power and transfer more power to the role of the President (himself)

A coup was far from the ideal solution, but I can't shake the feeling that this is just going to make things worse.

[Tamhansen]

It was also the perfect moment to discredit Gulen, his major opponent. It couldn't have worked out better for president oppresion if he'd organised it himself.

[Norwegian One]

It was also the perfect moment to discredit Gulen, his major opponent. It couldn't have worked out better for president oppresion if he'd organised it himself.

Yes, and now he has removed over 2700 judges from their positions. Anyone wanna bet that the new ones will be supportive of him?

[Lustful Bride]

I don't think that he really caused this. (though its not 100% unlikely this was a false flag) but I do think he is just using this as justification for the actions that are to follow.

[Norwegian One]

I don't think that he really caused this. (though its not 100% unlikely this was a false flag) but I do think he is just using this as justification for the actions that are to follow.

Yeah, I doubt that this was staged, though he is certainly going to reap the benefits of it.

[Angie]

Yeah, I doubt that this was staged, though he is certainly going to reap the benefits of it.

Never let a major crisis go to waste.

[RedRose]

I have a few Turkish acquaintances and haven't heard from them yet. The world is such a crazy place.

[Vekseid]

I don't think that he really caused this. (though its not 100% unlikely this was a false flag) but I do think he is just using this as justification for the actions that are to follow.

The US Secretary of State just asked for evidence of Fethullah Gulen's involvement in the coup. Low-level soldiers are saying they weren't aware they were part of a coup.

There is definitely something fishy about this.

[Izu]

Fishy like... no facebook, twitter, skype, anything all over Turkey, all blocked by the military taking over, but somehow, miraculously, Erdogan and that one news anchor were able to FaceTime each other? >.>

[Polymorph]

Erdogan's purge is very clearly going well beyond targeting those with involvement in the attempted coup. Teachers, imams, university staff certainly would not be people with prior knowledge of an army coup. I have seen speculation that non-sunni officials are being dismissed wholesale with the purpose of removing Shiite, Alevi, Christian and Atheists from any positions of influence.
-

[gaggedLouise]

The Erdogan regime seems to be losing no time; there are major purges being launched of universitey deans and professors, military officers and common schoolteachers. Many of them are not even claimed to have had anything to do with the coup, but they are targeted for being "supporters" or sympathizers of the political movement that the government says was the breeding-ground of the coup attempt. This really smacks of old-style single-party autocracy.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/07/20/unprecedented-purge-deans-turkey

Turkey’s Higher Education Council reportedly demanded the resignation of 1,577 university deans on Tuesday as the widespread purges of state institutions begun after last week’s failed coup extended into the education sector.
In addition, more than 15,000 education ministry officials were suspended and 21,000 schoolteachers had their licenses revoked.

This whole thing, by the way, is going to have a big impact on how to handle the war in Syria and the flow of migrants in Europe - Turkey is a key player in both of those. I don't see any government (except well, Hungary) wanting to send migrants and refused asylum seekers back to Turkey in this kind of situation.

[Norwegian One]

Yeah, the army has historically been the power that guarantees a secular Turkey, and as such have been in opposition to the gradually more Islamist Erdogan, and now he has the perfect excuse to put loyalists in every power position, no matter how minute. So I am not surprised by the fact that he goes as far as removing teachers and deans. Disappointed and sad, yes, but not surprised.

[TaintedAndDelish]

Wikileaks released a ton of email from Turkey's AKP ( Justice and Development Party ). I have no idea what's in them and don't read Turkish ( I assume they are not in English ), but perhaps this may lead to more revelations about the coup attempt in the near future.

https://wikileaks.org/akp-emails/

[Vekseid]

A lot of people are focusing on Google Groups mailings which are not actually necessarily from anyone in the Turkish government. There may be a few gems in there, but if you see a translation, note the e-mail address first.

[Angie]

Wikileaks is making Chrome go "uh, we're detecting forced malware installs, we don't want you to go there". Can anyone get us an archive link or some sort of mirror?

[Norwegian One]

Unsurprisingly, Erdogan has declared a whole three months of martial law. Giving himself time to finish the purges and transfer all power to himself?

[gaggedLouise]

Wikileaks is making Chrome go "uh, we're detecting forced malware installs, we don't want you to go there". Can anyone get us an archive link or some sort of mirror?

Try opening an anonymous (incognito) tab if it won't work in a normal window.

[gaggedLouise]

Unsurprisingly, Erdogan has declared a whole three months of martial law. Giving himself time to finish the purges and transfer all power to himself?

Just saw that a Turkish professor has dubbed it "the Reichstag fire of modern Turkey". Just like Hitler used the enigmatic night of arson on the parliament to expand his powers and drive home a sense of urgency...

[Norwegian One]

Just saw that a Turkish professor has dubbed it "the Reichstag fire of modern Turkey". Just like Hitler used the enigmatic night of arson on the parliament to expand his powers and drive home a sense of urgency...

Yup, pretty much. Erdogan is using it for all it's worth.

[Cassandra LeMay]

To me it seems reasonable to assume, from the speed things have been happening in Turkey the last few days, that Erdogan had lists of people he wanted to get rid of already at hand. If that is true we can thank the coup for giving him an opportunity to do it all in one fell swoop. Without it the same might have happened, but spread over maybe a few years. At least now Erdogan's actions are so plain to see that they will not fly under the radar of Western media. Without the coup we might never even have noticed what was going on.

Not that it will make any difference to him, but still...

[Norwegian One]

To me it seems reasonable to assume, from the speed things have been happening in Turkey the last few days, that Erdogan had lists of people he wanted to get rid of already at hand. If that is true we can thank the coup for giving him an opportunity to do it all in one fell swoop. Without it the same might have happened, but spread over maybe a few years. At least now Erdogan's actions are so plain to see that they will not fly under the radar of Western media. Without the coup we might never even have noticed what was going on.

Not that it will make any difference to him, but still...

Yeah, they have probably had ready-made lists of suspected opposition and people who disagree. The coup has simply given Erdogan an excuse to hasten the removal of those who oppose him. And now it's being reported that Turkey has suspended their obligation to the Human Rights Convention. Nothing bad could possibly come of this, right?

[Cassandra LeMay]

And now it's being reported that Turkey has suspended their obligation to the Human Rights Convention. Nothing bad could possibly come of this, right?

It has happened in other countries before, and I am not sure if the current state of emergency in France doesn't also suspend at least some parts of the ECHR.

What few mentions of this I have seen so far have not been detailed at all, but Contracting Parties to the ECHR have the right to suspend most of the Convention during certain emergencies.

ARTICLE 15
Derogation in time of emergency
1.  In  time  of  war  or  other  public  emergency  threatening  the  life of the nation any High Contracting Party may take measures
derogating from its obligations under this Convention to the extent strictly required by the exigencies of the situation, provided that
such measures are not inconsistent with its other obligations under international law.
2.   No   derogation   from   Article   2,   except   in   respect   of  deaths  resulting  from  lawful  acts  of  war,  or  from  Articles  3,  4 
(paragraph 1) and 7 shall be made under this provision.
3.  ... [concerns keeping the Council of Europe informed of all measures taken]

The articles mentioned under #2. are right to life, prohibition against torture, prohibition of slavery/forced labor, and the "no punishment without law" clauses.