Reblogged:Purges in Turkey

[Gus Van Horn blog]

Over the weekend, I saw reports of a coup in Turkey, quickly followed by reports that it had failed. This morning, I am seeing speculation that the country's Islamist leader, Recep Erdoğan, may have faked a coup. At the very least, he plainly sees the opportunity to purgeTurkey of opposition and consolidate his power, as an articlein the New Yorker explains. That article ends on the following ominous note:

During his speech last night at the Istanbul airport, Erdoğan referred to the attempted coup as a "gift from God." Erdoğan is usually a precise speaker, but in this case, perhaps in his excitement, he showed his cards. With the coup attempt thwarted, he will no doubt seize the moment. In recent months, Erdoğan has made little secret of his desire to rewrite the constitution to give himself near total power. There will be no stopping him now. [format edits]

As an added bonus, Erdoğan, is blaming the events on a former ally (who lives in Pennsylvania) and his followers in Turkey. Erdoğan has already indicated he will ask for the cleric to be extradited from the United States. His languageabout that matter indicates that he will treat a failure to comply as a betrayal. Has Erdoğan shown us "his cards," or is he really just naming the obvious, that Turkey is finished as a semi-free country, and with it, an alliance?

-- CAV

Link to Original

[softwareNerd]

In less than 24 hours, Erdogan arrested about 3000 military personnel, and fired about 2000 judges. The former is plausible, but the latter indicates that the government already had a list of judges it wanted to get rid of, and used this as an excuse. Extrapolating, they've probably arrested military officers that were not part of the coup, but are not sympathetic to the government. Erdogan is the "man who would be king (aka Capliph)".