TURKEY'S DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED PRESIDENT HAS DEFEATED A MILITARY COUP

…Turkish tanks had blocked off the bridges leaving Istanbul

 

But the Turkish president is apparently trying to turn his presidency into a dictatorship.

 

Many people that have not been following what has been going on in Turkey were not only surprised by a coup attempt, they also didn’t understand the significance of Turkey to NATO and the United States.

 

Let’s look at some of the reality of Turkey for both Europe and the United States.

 

·       Turkey is the only member nation of NATO that is a majority Muslim nation.  They are also the stepping stone from Europe to the Middle East, and vice versa.

 

·       Turkey’s Incirlik Air Base in Adana, Turkey, is the main airport used by the US military for their air and drone strikes against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.

 

·       Turkey’s President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan was democratically elected multiple times as both Prime Minister and later as President.

 

·       It was the Turkish Military that took over the country after WWI and made Turkey into the secular country that it is today.

 

·       The attempt of a coup by the rogue group of the military was attempted while the president was on vacation.  The coup was attempted because the president has been pushing the country to be more of a religious Muslim nation, than a secular nation, which was against the focus of the Turkish military.

 

Here are some of the reason that this group in the military tried such a dangerous coup attempt.

 

·       President Erdogan has virtually been in charge of Turkey for fourteen years.  He had been the Prime Minister which has the most power in the government.  After being the PM, he ran for and won as president and has since been working to make the presidency of Turkey into a virtual dictatorship.

 

·       When Erdogan became Prime Minister of Turkey, he immediately got rid of the highest officers in the military, and he replaced them with lower level officers that were loyal to him.

 

·       Erdogan has not been very strong in going after ISIL.  For the last few years, he allowed the border to be a virtual sieve for radical Muslim individuals to use Turkey in going back and forth from Syria to Europe and elsewhere.

 

·       A US defense official said Saturday morning that the coup attempt in Turkey had led the United States to boost its force protection levels on its bases in Turkey to “condition Delta,” its highest level. This is typically used when there is an ongoing terrorist attack.  The official also said that the State Department has not requested reinforcement of its diplomatic facilities or to fly any Americans out of the country.  However, the US Consulate warned Americans to stay away from the Incirlik Air Base which was seal off by local coup members who had also cut the power to the base.

 

• Some in Turkey think that the US was in support of the Coup and the rogue military event.

Here’s what happened during the coup attempt.

 

Turkey’s government defeated a coup attempt by a renegade faction of the military that pummeled government and security institutions overnight with fighter jets.  The government reasserted control after hours of chaos and clashes that killed at least 265 people and plunged the already troubled country into further uncertainty.

 

So far, more than 100 coup plotters were killed and the acting military chief Gen. Umit Dundar said on live TV that another 161 people, including civilians and police were killed as ordinary Turks confronted tanks in urban areas. At least 1,440 Turks were wounded.  Thousands of military personnel have been jailed from the coup attempt.

 

The Prime Minister Benali Yildirim announced, “The situation is now completely under control.”  He added that more than 2,800 Turkish members of the military have been arrested and he called the coup attempt “a dark stain for Turkish democracy.”

 

The concern from the US is that this move by rogue officers and their supporters was the most significant challenge to the country's stability in decades.  It has raised fears that a close US ally could now be destined for a prolonged period of civil strife.

 

Gen. Dundar described the coup plotters as coming mainly from the air force, military police and armored units. Government forces had finally closed in on the army headquarters in the capital, Ankara, where at least 150 rebel troops were holed up.

 

According to Turkey's Minister for E.U. Affairs, Omer Celik, some pro-government military commanders were still being held hostage by rebel officers.  But the circumstances surrounding their captivity has remained unclear.  The Interior Ministry also reported that five generals and 29 colonels had been removed from their posts.

 

Some of those involved in the coup appear to have fled as the plot fell apart.  Greece has announced that a Turkish military helicopter issued a distress signal and made an emergency landing at Alexandroupoli,  Greece.  The Greek military detained the eight men aboard, who requested political asylum. Turkey has of course, requested their extradition.

 

After a night of gunfire, explosions and violent confrontations on the bridges and in the city’s main squares, in Istanbul, the bridges were finally reopened and traffic began to move again on the streets.

 

Gruesome video footage had been posted on social media showing tanks crushing protesters who tried to block their path. Bloodied bodies were shown strewn on the streets of Ankara and of helicopters firing into civilian crowds.

 

After dawn and the hours of the overnight clashes, President Erdogan appeared at the Istanbul airport and greeted a huge crowd of flag-waving supporters.

 

Erdogan had been vacationing on the Aegean Sea when the military intervention was launched at night. In a statement distributed by the armed forces, the rebel military faction said they had "seized complete control of the government" in order to "restore rights and freedoms" and establish the rule of law.

 

But Erdogan, who had been growing increasingly authoritarian, he still remained defiant.  This was even as rebel gunners were firing on the parliament and on the presidential palace in Ankara.  F-16 War planes had been swooping and firing over central Istanbul.

 

“This government, brought to power by the people, is in charge,” Erdogan said from the Istanbul airport. “A minority group within the armed forces targeted the integrity of our country.”

 

But with reports that gunfire and explosions were still being heard on the streets of Istanbul and Ankara, it was far from clear whether the worst crisis in Turkey in decades had been resolved.

 

What is a real issue for the US is that the splits within the security forces has revealed a Turkish society polarized between supporters and opponents of the deeply controversial Erdogan.  His autocratic behavior has alienated many segments of the Turkish society.

 

Erdogan remains hugely popular among his core constituents and with opposition parties as well as important branches of the military and security services that rallied to the government’s side.

 

Mobile phone videos uploaded to the social-media sites showed scenes in which people were scrambling over tanks in trying to block their paths and the soldiers opening fire on some of the crowds.

 

Erdogan had made a statement that, “You cannot rule Turkey from Pennsylvania.”

 

What he was referring to was the group of disgruntled military officers that were loyal to the movements of a US-based Muslim cleric, Fethullah Gulen.  This former colleague of Erdogan was exiled from Turkey and now lives in Pennsylvania.  He continues to maintain a network of followers across Turkey and he has long challenged Erdogan’s hold on power.

 

Erdogan has stated that the military would purge members of that movement from its ranks, adding that the “era of coups and juntas have come to a close.”

 

The coup was probably done this week because these same officers were destined to lose their jobs in August during a military reshuffle that had been ordered by the president.

 

To show you the total power of the president, based on his directions, the Turkish authorities have removed 2,745 judges from their duties following the coup attempt.  This was announced on the nation’s government TV broadcast citing a decision by the High Council of Judges and Prosecutors. The judges were removed because of suspicions they have links to the same cleric, Fethullah Gulen.

 

Secretary of State John F. Kerry said Saturday that Turkey has not asked for the extradition of the cleric Gulen, who still lives in exile in rural Pennsylvania, but he said the United States would consider such a request.  During a stop in Luxembourg, Kerry said the United States would support investigations to determine who instigated Friday’s attempted coup, and where its support originates. He said he anticipates questions will be raised about Gulen.  “Obviously we invite the government of Turkey, as we always do, to present us with any legitimate evidence that withstands scrutiny,” Kerry said.

 

Kerry also said criticized the coup, saying elections are the proper way to settle disputes in a democracy.  But he added, “I must say, it does not appear to have been a very brilliantly planned or executed event. But let’s reserve judgment until all the facts are in.”

 

The Gulenist movement in Turkey denied involvement, however, and amid the confusion, it was impossible to confirm who was behind the attempt to topple the government.

 

The reality is that President Erdogan has made many enemies in the many years he has been running Turkey, first as prime minister and then, since 2014, as president. Hundreds of Turkish military officers have been imprisoned by the Erdogan government, some of them even accused of coup-plotting, and it had been widely thought that his crackdown on dissent had dispelled the risk of coups in the once coup-prone country.

 

Needless to say, that thinking was misplaced, and as the president continues to tighten his grip on controlling all of Turkey, the more his enemies will be trying to rid the nation on his authoritarian grip.

 

Watch this space.

 

Copyright G.Ater  2016