Military coup in Turkey

[Gob]

An army group in Turkey says it has taken over the country, with soldiers at strategic points in Istanbul and jets flying low in the capital, Ankara.

A statement read on TV said a "peace council" now ran the country and there was a curfew and martial law.

It is unclear who the group is or its level of support. Some top army officials are said to be detained.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he would overcome what he called an uprising by a minority.

He told CNN Turk by mobile phone the action was by a "parallel structure" that would bring the necessary response. He has used this term in the past to refer to Fethullah Gulen, a US-based Muslim cleric he accuses of fomenting unrest.

Mr Erdogan called on people to take to the streets to oppose the uprising.

He said: "I urge the Turkish people to convene at public squares and airports. I never believed in a power higher than the power of the people."

Mr Erdogan said he was on his way to Ankara and those involved in the action would pay a heavy price. His office said he was in a secure location.

Reports earlier on Friday said the president was on vacation in the south-western resort of Marmaris.

Gunfire on the streets now.

[rubato]

Deeply concerning, especially since the UK has just appointed an amoral clown as foreign secretary.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36795502

France's foreign minister has said his newly appointed British counterpart, Boris Johnson, is a liar with "his back against the wall".

In comments to Europe 1 radio, Jean-Marc Ayrault said Mr Johnson had lied to the British people during the recent EU referendum campaign and would now be under pressure "to defend his country".

The former London mayor led the campaign to take Britain out of the EU.

He was booed at a reception at the French Embassy later on Thursday.
'Charming letter'

Mr Johnson was expected to stand for the Conservative party leadership in the wake of the referendum result, but did not put himself forward after key colleagues withdrew support.

His appointment as foreign secretary has surprised many politicians and commentators around the world, who have recalled his history of undiplomatic or offensive comments.

Boris Johnson appointment: The world reacts

How Britain's new foreign secretary has insulted the world

Mr Ayrault said: "I am not at all worried about Boris Johnson, but you know his style, his method during the campaign - he lied a lot to the British people.

Leadership would have been nice. But this is the tripe we get instead.

yrs,
rubato

[BoSoxGal]

I'm watching coverage of this and listening to pundits and wondering if this is good or bad? My visceral reaction to 'military coup' is bad, but it sounds like President Erdoğan was becoming quite the authoritarian.

Good or bad thing?

[Gob]

Deeply concerning, especially since the UK has just appointed an amoral clown as foreign secretary.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36795502

France's foreign minister has said his newly appointed British counterpart, Boris Johnson, is a liar with "his back against the wall".

In comments to Europe 1 radio, Jean-Marc Ayrault said Mr Johnson had lied to the British people during the recent EU referendum campaign and would now be under pressure "to defend his country".

The former London mayor led the campaign to take Britain out of the EU.

He was booed at a reception at the French Embassy later on Thursday.
'Charming letter'

Mr Johnson was expected to stand for the Conservative party leadership in the wake of the referendum result, but did not put himself forward after key colleagues withdrew support.

His appointment as foreign secretary has surprised many politicians and commentators around the world, who have recalled his history of undiplomatic or offensive comments.

Boris Johnson appointment: The world reacts

How Britain's new foreign secretary has insulted the world

Mr Ayrault said: "I am not at all worried about Boris Johnson, but you know his style, his method during the campaign - he lied a lot to the British people.

Leadership would have been nice. But this is the tripe we get instead.

yrs,
rubato

Oh dear, Aspergers is such a dreadful condition, is it not?

To start, the fact that Boris has been made Foreign secretary, has nothing to do with you (retardo) getting "tripe", (is he foreign secretary of the US now?)

rubato, can you name me a foreign secretary from the US who can speak 7 languages, should we start there?

Or shall we start with asking you what the fuck his Clintonesque sex life has to do with his capacity to be a good foreign secretary.

Your weaselly little non-life has conditioned you to hit out with hate at your betters*, you embarrass yourself here too often, double prick.







*i.e. everyone else.

[rubato]

I guess you have not bothered to follow Boris' history, have you?

No surprise there.

the lying might have tipped you off to the problems, if you cared.

He keeps SAYING he's going to renounce his Us citizenship and then reneging about it. Over and over again he says it.:

Boris Johnson 'intends to renounce US citizenship'

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-31475945

A year and a half later and still no action from Mr. Boris.


But this pattern goes back a long, long ways:

Tax bill

His passport was renewed in November 2012 but he had previously stated that he would give it up after being told in 2006 that, as a native born American, he could only use a US passport to travel in that country, and not his British one.

"The reason I'm thinking I probably will want to make a change is that my commitment is, and always has been, to Britain," he said.

In January he settled a US tax bill he had previously described as "absolutely outrageous".

Mr Johnson had faced a demand from the US authorities to pay capital gains tax on profits from the sale of his house in north London.

American law requires all citizens to pay US taxes even if they live abroad.
... "

And then there is his lack of diplomatic skills:

1. On Hillary Clinton, Telegraph 2007

She's got dyed blonde hair and pouty lips, and a steely blue stare, like a sadistic nurse in a mental hospital.

2. On Bashar Al-Assad, Telegraph March 2016

Hooray, I say. Bravo – and keep going.

3. On black people, 2010

What a relief it must be for Blair to get out of England. It is said that the Queen has come to love the Commonwealth, partly because it supplies her with regular cheering crowds of flag-waving piccaninnies.

4. On his time as editor of Spectator

Johnson was heavily criticised back in 2008 about a Spectator article which was published when he was editor of the publication. Ken Livingston and a black lawyer accused him of condoning racism after he allowed an article to be published which said:

Orientals ... have larger brains and higher IQ scores. Blacks are at the other pole.

5. On Barack Obama, The Sun April 2006

The part-Kenyan President [has an] ancestral dislike of the British empire – of which Churchill had been such a fervent defender.

6. On Malaysian women attending university, 2013

At the World Islamic Economic Forum Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said that 68 per cent of women were going to be attending university, to which Johnson quipped:

[Female students went to university because they] have got to find men to marry.

7. On the EU and the Nazis, The Sunday Telegraph 2016

Johnson claimed that the past 2,000 years had seen failed attempts to recreate the "golden age" of the Roman Empire.

Napoleon, Hitler, various people tried this out, and it ends tragically. The EU is an attempt to do this by different methods.

8. On Turkish president Tayyip Erdoğan, The Spectator, May 2016

There was a young fellow from Ankara

Who was a terrific wankerer.

Till he sowed his wild oats

With the help of a goat

But he didn’t even stop to thankera.

9. On Eurosceptics

I can hardly condemn Ukip as a bunch of boss-eyed, foam-flecked euro hysterics, when I have been sometimes not far short of boss-eyed, foam-flecked hysteria myself.

10. On voting Conservative

Voting Tory will cause your wife to have bigger breasts and increase your chances of owning a BMW M3.

If you are in any doubt about how the world sees the UK following Johnson’s appointment, watch US state department spokesperson Mark Toner react to the news:

Someone, someone who reads newspapers and does not erase the memory with drink, put up a sign outside Boris' kennel:



yrs,
rubato

[Econoline]

Okay, the limerick was kinda funny...

[rubato]

But back on topic now that we have established that the UK will not be providing the kind of calm intelligent leadership we used to expect from them in moments like this ... ahem ... this is a serious problem because it has potential consequences in prosecuting the war against ISIS and supporting the moderate groups fighting Assad.

Well, we still have the EU to back us up.




yrs,
rubato

[Gob]

But back on topic now that we have established that the UK will not be providing the kind of calm intelligent leadership we used to expect from them in moments like this ... ahem ... this is a serious problem because it has potential consequences in prosecuting the war against ISIS and supporting the moderate groups fighting Assad.

Well, we still have the EU to back us up.




yrs,
rubato

Having shown us nothing which would justify linking the new foreign secretary to the troubles in Turkey, he now has the gall to try to bluster that it's the UK's job to provide leadership there. Wow!

Shouldn't we leave it to the US to provide leadership, seeing as US foreign diplomacy is far superior to the UK's?

The friendliness of Turkey towards the United States has declined markedly since 2003, primarily a result of the United States' action in the Iraq War in 2003. Turkey views the war as a significant threat because Northern Iraq acts as a haven for the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Furthermore, Turkey views the destabilization of Iraq as a possible impetus for Kurds to claim their independence from Turkey, Iraq, and/or other Middle Eastern countries with significant Kurdish populations. A further strain in relations has been attributed to disagreements over the American support of Kurdish YPG fighters in the Syrian Civil War, with Turkey openly targeting them militarily.

Aspergers boy keeps telling us that "hate makes you stupid", unfortunately for him his stupidity makes him hate.

[rubato]

Having shown us nothing which would justify linking the new foreign secretary to the troubles in Turkey, he now has the gall to try to bluster that it's the UK's job to provide leadership there. Wow!

Shouldn't we leave it to the US to provide leadership, seeing as US foreign diplomacy is far superior to the UK's?

One would have thought that the ability to lead was a good thing and something to be desired. Not an onerous obligation which was much too far beyond you.

You've come down and now all you can do is make excuses for it.

We will lead, as we have done. We have to. We are not running away from the rest of the world as you are.

yrs,
rubato

[Gob]

Having shown us nothing which would justify linking the new foreign secretary to the troubles in Turkey, he now has the gall to try to bluster that it's the UK's job to provide leadership there. Wow!

Shouldn't we leave it to the US to provide leadership, seeing as US foreign diplomacy is far superior to the UK's?

One would have thought that the ability to lead was a good thing and something to be desired. Not an onerous obligation which was much too far beyond you.

You've come down and now all you can do is make excuses for it.

We will lead, as we have done. We have to.

yrs,
rubato

ROTFLMFFAO!! You're so twisted up in hate double dick, that you cannot help but embarrass yourself. Well done.

After the 1974 Cypriot coup d'état, backed by the Cypriot National Guard and the Greek military junta, Turkey sent its forces to Cyprus on July 20, 1974. In doing so, Turkey claimed to protect the safety of Turkish Cypriots under the Treaty of Guarantee. As a result of the military operation, Turkish forces took control of the northern third of Cyprus and divided the island along what became known as the Green Line monitored by the United Nations.

Turkey, only 75 km away, had repeatedly claimed, for decades before the invasion and frequently afterwards, that Cyprus was of vital strategic importance to it. Ankara has defied a host of UN resolutions demanding the withdrawal of its occupation troops from the island. About 142.000 Greek Cypriots living in the north – nearly one quarter of the population of Cyprus – were forcibly expelled from the occupied northern part of the island where they constituted 80% of the population. These people are still deprived of the right to return to their homes and properties. U.S. Congress imposed an embargo on arms sales to Turkey leading to excessive tension and mistrust between relations of Turkey and USA.

"For the U.S., this situation creates a dilemma," Werz said. "The U.S. government will have to defend the elected government ... knowing, that the military can count on considerable support among Turks that are tired of an increasingly authoritarian president and continuing terrorist attacks in their country."

"Erdogan's relationship with the (U.S. government) is strained and marked by increasing distrust," Werz told NBC News. "There are few in the U.S. government that are willing to do the Turkish government any favors."

[Lord Jim]

But back on topic now

LOL

In what universe does your know-nothing Brit bashing trolling constitute being "back on topic" in a thread about the coup attempt in Turkey ?



Really back on topic:

Apparently the coup is collapsing, which is probably bad news both for the US and the rest of The West as well as for the Turkish people...

Internationally, Erdogan has been an inconstant and unreliable ally in prosecuting the war against Islamic Jihadism in general and the war against ISIS in particular, and domestically he has been systematically dismantling the institutions and structure of Turkish democracy, along the lines of the Putin model...

It was depressing to see so many people out in the streets cheering on this populist demagogue who has been destroying the free press and jailing his political opponents, while seeking to impose his own Islamist views on what has been a Muslim country with a long proud tradition of secularism.

At his appearance at Ataturk airport, Erdogan called the coup a "Godsend" ...

Since it has apparently failed, from his perspective no doubt it is, since it will give him the pretext to accelerate his destruction of both Turkish secularism and its nascent democracy...

ETA:

Successful Coup Conducting 101:

Step 1:

Kill or capture the target of the coup.

[Guinevere]

You cannot possibly be serious that a military coup is the right answer to Erdogan's abuses.

[Gob]

Seems like Boris sorted it all out in no time.

[Lord Jim]

You cannot possibly be serious that a military coup is the right answer to Erdogan's abuses.

It may be the only answer, if a secular, law-based system of government is to be restored in Turkey....

A coup is never a desirable course of action, but if the putschists are sincerely committed to re-establishing a country based on basic democratic principles, (freedom of expression, freedom of the press, freedom for the political opposition to operate without fear or intimidation, an independent judiciary, etc.) in a country where such principles are being destroyed by a tyrant, (even a tyrant who was initially elected...) then it is justified...

If there were a military coup in Russia where the coup leaders were operating out of that sort of motivation, I'd be 100% in favor of it...

[Jarlaxle]

Pretty much that...though that is rarely how a coup ends.

[Burning Petard]

It now looks to me as though this was a 'potemkin village' of a coup, staged to fail miserably but give the president leverage to purge the military and the judiciary of those who were blocking his centralization of power.

snailgate

[Gob]

First they came for the army, then the judges.....

More than 15,000 education staff in Turkey have been suspended after last week's failed coup, as a purge of state officials widens still further.

The ministry of education accused them of links to Fethullah Gulen, a US-based cleric the Turkish government says was behind Friday's uprising.

Mr Gulen denies any involvement.

More than 1,500 university deans have also been ordered to resign and the licences of 21,000 teachers working at private institutions revoked.

[BoSoxGal]

Okay so I'm no fan of subverting democracy but it sounds like Erdogan is precipitously close to becoming a dictator.

[oldr_n_wsr]

Sounds like that's his plan
and has been for a while