-
Please take a moment and update your account profile. If you have an updated account profile with basic information on why you are on Air Warriors it will help other people respond to your posts. How do you update your profile you ask?
Go here:
Edit Account Details and Profile
Turkey Coup
- Thread starter ChuckMK23
- Start date
Got to be real interesting if you are det'd out over there at the moment.
The policy answer? The US only deals with legitimately elected governments..... The harsh reality answer? Who the hell knows? And, the fact that we've got forces in country to combat ISIS only makes it more of a difficult question to answer.
As far as I can gather, the military has a history of intervening against Islamists. Erdogan seems to fit the bill. Right now there are mobs and tanks in the streets, with audible gunfire.
exNavyOffRec
Well-Known Member
I think I was more confused after I read various articles then before
The Turkish military, or at least their officers, have long considered themselves the guardians of Kemalism. Secularism, democracy (within limits), women's rights, etc. Keep in mind that the Ottoman Sultan who was deposed at the end of WWI was the last person before Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to lay claim to the title of Khalifat rasul Allah, or Caliph. Deputy of the Prophet of God. The closest thing theologically to a Sunni Muslim Pope, though they're not equivalent at all. Kemal Ataturk founded the modern Turkish state on explicitly secular grounds. Seems as though some people think Erdogan strayed too far from those roots.
My experience with military officers from that neck of the woods - i.e., the Muslim Mediterranean - is that they regard themselves as the guardians of secular government and are extremely leery of "crazy beards" (as one Algerian major described them to me) becoming too influential. That's probably at least in part to what happened in Iran - the mullahs take over and all the 'westernized' soldiers find themselves hanging from trees or running for Paris. And remember that in most of that world, being a military officer is a family affair, almost a social class more than a professional class. The Turks take it even further, with Ataturk's philosophy that Islamism is actually a hindrance to progress that should be suppressed, as opposed to just controlled or contained.
Erdogan's been playing with fire for a while now, marginalizing the military, suppressing democratic institutions, and flirting with Islamists, in a country where those are all things that piss off the guys with guns. I'm surprised it took the army this long to move, frankly.
Erdogan's been playing with fire for a while now, marginalizing the military, suppressing democratic institutions, and flirting with Islamists, in a country where those are all things that piss off the guys with guns. I'm surprised it took the army this long to move, frankly.
If it is a coup they haven't done a very good job of it so far, since one of the main rules is to incapacitate the current leaders and Erdogan is FaceTimeing against the coup on live TV. Fail. I still wouldn't put it past Erdogan to be behind this, since if he defeats the coup he would likely become even more powerful than his is now like Chavez after '98.
Let's not forget the hundreds of senior military leaders Erdogan had rounded up, arrested, and tried before kangaroo (camel?) courts - only to have those convictions overturned on appeal as recently as this April.
So if you just shot up parliament in your helicopter, where do you fly after you find out your coup failed?
Gonna be one of those days when your take-offs don't equal your landings
France left willingly. History may repeat itself.
What about the bro who was putting on a single-ship airshow in his F-16...!? Fuck yeah urban night shows of force!
Last edited: