Drew Phipps Wrote:I heard a report on NPR that as many as 60,000 government workers had been fired from their jobs.

Paul Rigby Wrote:

Peter Lemkin Wrote:Information on this seems a little difficult to get [the State of Emergency only went into effect this morning]...but it seems social media is still 'on', but many are afraid to use it just now...they know everything is being watched - and everyone......

Horrifying. But enough of America, what's going on Turkey?

Magda Hassan Wrote:

Drew Phipps Wrote:I heard a report on NPR that as many as 60,000 government workers had been fired from their jobs.

Quite possible Drew. I was listening to some one on the radio this morning. They were from the ruling party (APK?) and she was asked about all the sackings from the education institutions. She was saying that Turkey is very large country and while it sounds a lot is in not very many actually and when looked at as a percentage of all teachers and lecturers is only 2 or 3% of the profession and these sacking are mostly from the Gulen schools and institutions of which they run many. Gulen have many of them in the US too. I knew that from other research into Gulen and it is on here some where.

Quote:Estimates of the number of Gulen-related schools and educational institutions vary widely, from about 300 schools in Turkey to over 1,000 schools worldwide.[SUP][2][/SUP][SUP][3][/SUP]

Quote:Latest, News, Our Picks, Sections

Russia Warned Erdogan of Incoming Coup

SERGEY GLADYSH24 hours ago 4 463
Hours before the coup attempt in Turkey began, Russia provided President Erdogan with intelligence which saved his regime and quite possibly his life.

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According to Iranian Fars News Agency and Arab media outlets citing diplomatic sources in Ankara * Russia helped prevent a successful military coup d'état in Turkey by intercepting encrypted messages and warning President Erdogan of the incoming attack on his government just hours before the rebel operation got underway.
Intelligence about the planned coup was gathered by the Russian military units in the region. It is believed that officers at the Russian Hmeimim Air Base in northern Syria, which houses modern intercept systems, were able to capture and analyze encrypted radio messages, revealing the plans of the Turkish military to topple the government and capture or kill President Erdogan.
The heads up from Russia gave the Turkish leader just enough time to prepare and adequately respond, evacuating his hotel at the Marmaris resort right before several military helicopters arrived at the scene to capture or assassinate him.
This most recent and groundbreaking revelation, if true, explains why Erdogan phoned Putin on the following day. Certainly, Erdogan must now realize that his apology to Russia about the downing of Su-24 couldn't have come at a better time. Had he stalled with the apology, perhaps Russia would have just stepped back and watched him fail. Then again, maybe the apology and renewed dialogue with Putin was the very reason the coup was given the green light by its masterminds in the West.
Either way, Erdogan came out of the coup more resilient than ever. And he has only Russia to thank for that. The next few weeks and months will show us if Turkey's president actually learned his lesson, and whether it will lead to any significant policy shifts in the region.

Quote:

Did Russian intelligence warn Turkish government of impending coup?

JULY 22, 2016 BY IAN ALLEN LEAVE A COMMENT

Russian and Turkish authorities will not confirm or deny reports that the Kremlin warned Turkey's intelligence services about an impending coup on July 15, several hours before tanks appeared on the streets of major Turkish cities. On Wednesday, several Arab and Iranian news outlets claimed that Russian intelligence officials told the government in Ankara that the Turkish military was preparing a coup. The reports cited anonymous Turkish diplomats who said that Turkish intelligence was urgently alerted by the Russians "hours before [the military coup] was initiated on Friday".According to the unconfirmed reports, the secret preparations for the coup first came to the attention of Russian military intelligence. Its radio interceptors captured and were subsequently able to read a series of encoded radio messages exchanged between Turkish commanders in the early hours of July 15. There is no information about the precise circumstances of the alleged interception, though media reports note the significant presence of Russian military intelligence in the northern Syrian province of Latakia, a few miles south of the Turkish border. The reports state that the intercepted messages contained "highly sensitive army exchanges" involving a plan to send army helicopters to the Turkish resort port of Marmaris, where the Turkish President Tayyip ErdoÄŸan was holidaying, in order to kill or capture him. Russian intelligence officials reportedly shared the information with senior members of Turkey's National Intelligence Organization (MÄ°T). The alleged exchange allegedly took place "several hours before the start of the coup" in Turkey.However, government officials in Ankara will not comment on the possibility that Russian intelligence services may have warned the MÄ°T about the coup. On Thursday, Russian government spokesman Dmitri Peskov was asked directly by journalists whether the Kremlin warned Turkish officials of an impending coup by the military. He responded saying "I have no information of that kind and I do not know which sources [the media reports] are citing in making these claims". Russia's TASS news agency interpreted Peskov's comment as a denial. However, the wording in his response shows that he simply denies having personal knowledge of the incident. He does not deny it happened.â–º Author: Ian Allen | Date: 22 July 2016 |

Paul Rigby Wrote:

Paul Rigby Wrote:One interpretation of the puzzling nature of the attempted coup that can reconcile the inconsistencies is this - that the real target of its US sponsors was not Erdogan, but the Turkish military. In allowing Erodgan to survive, vengeance against the military, the historic guarantor of the nation's increasingly imperiled secularism, was guaranteed and is duly in train.

The cloaked objective of Washington's deep state, therefore, is the collapse of the Turkish nation-state, presumably in favour of a pseudo-Caliphate.

Extract from The Moon of Alabama's post, Wide Purges After Stage-Managed Coup Will Cripple Turkey:

http://www.moonofalabama.org/2016/07/wide-purges-after-stage-managed-coup-will-cripple-turkey.html

Quote:The Turkish state is now crippled. The experience and knowledge of all those people purged now is irreplaceable. Any unexpected event, military or civil, will be met with confused and disordered responses. Despite Erdogan's current success hubris will take its toll and Erdogan's triumph will soon be followed by a deep fall.

But not before lots of Turkish military equipment, not to mention some of the US nukes in the country, have "fallen" into the hands of Daesh/ISIL etc - precisely as the CIA intended.

The Agency's Islamic Contras will then have strategic depth, direct access to the sea, and an armoury to die for.

Quote:Despite the much-discussed failure of the coup attempt in Turkey, retired Turkish Admiral Turker Erturk told Sputnik Turkiye that it has actually reached its point: the actual target of the attempted overthrow, instigated by CIA, were the Turkish military, out of fear that they would hamper the "Greater Middle East" project.

Economic Crisis Yet Another Test for Erdogan After Failed Coup Attempt

"My view is that the CIA was behind the coup," Turker Erturk told Sputnik Turkiye.

"The major blow was delivered at the Turkish military. And the coup attempt was a success, in a sense that certain aims pursued by some certain forces, have been reached."

The retired Admiral further explained that the attempt turned out to be a failure for the supporters of the Gulen Movement, led by Turkish opposition cleric Fethullah Gulen, but for the CIA, which was "pulling the Gulen supporters by the strings" it was a success because the actual purpose of the attempt was to paralyze the Turkish military, disempower them and spoil their image.

"Why has the CIA done it?" he asked himself. He then replied:

"They wanted to hit the Turkish Armed Forces out of fear that Turkey, especially after normalizing its relationship with Russia, could hamper the creation of the so-called Kurdish corridor they are trying to set up in the north of Syria. And it's all part of the 'Greater Middle East' project."

Nice's Terror Attack, Turkish Coup Attempt Links of the Same Chain'

Turker Erturk explained that under this project, they don't want the forces which oppose the setup of hegemony in the Middle East to be present in the region, where Turkey, Russia, Iran, Iraq and Syria are the key nations.

Hence they try to polarize the key players according to ethnic or religious criteria. And the high-ranking American officials are openly saying: do what you want, but without an attack on the Turkish military; it is impossible to implement the part of the project which involves Turkey.

The first blow, he says, was leveled by the court trials "Sledgehammer" and "Ergenekon." And the recent attempt comes as the second blow under the very same project.

Its purpose was to deliver a fatal blow to the image and influence of the Turkish Armed Forces, who tried to hamper the "revamping of the region in a new way." It was a success: the Turkish Armed Forces have been practically destroyed.

Turker Erturk claims that the "imperialist forces" did not actually want to see Erdogan ousted. They actually wanted a coup attempt to weaken the power of the military, factor them out of the active ongoing processes, and liquidate the mere opportunity that Ankara would pose a threat to projects aimed against Syria, Iraq and Russia, as well as projects aimed at breaking down Turkey.

"This is why I am saying that the coup has failed but the coup attempt has reached its goal," the retired Turkish Admiral told Sputnik.

Big Political Changes Await Turkey, Now That It's Escaped the Coup

"If the imperialistic forces really wanted to oust Erdogan with the help of a successful coup, why would they need Gulen supporters?" he wondered.

"They would have set the Armed Forces leadership against him, everything would have been done with insubordination, and the coup would have been a 100 percent success," he explained.

Turker Erturk thus summarized that the final objective had not been a coup and the ouster of Erdogan, but an attempted coup which was designed to fail, delivering a hurtful blow at the Turkish Armed Forces, depriving them of public support and spoiling their image. It was a success, he concluded.

Quote:

Erdogan Suspects US Sympathy for Coup

July 22, 2016

Reports that Russian President Putin may have tipped off Turkish President Erdogan about last week's coup attempt while the U.S. apparently stayed silent suggest a possible reordering of regional relationships, says John Chuckman.
By John Chuckman
Events in Turkey just become stranger with each passing day. We now have Middle Eastern and Persian sources, cited by Russian and German papers, that Russia's security agencies overheard helicopter radio transmissions by the coup participants, and President Vladimir Putin warned President Recep Tayyip Erdogan about what was happening, likely saving his skin.
If true, this would help explain the apparent ineptness of the coup forces. My first hypothesis explaining this ineptness plus other peculiarities of the coup was that the plotters were unwittingly working in a dark operation run by Turkish security forces, intended to make them fail while flushing them out and giving Erdogan a free hand.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on July 20, 2016. declares a state of emergency for three months with the goal of eliminating his internal enemies. (Turkish government photo)

This possibility of Russian advance warning put together with Erdogan's own belief that the coup originated in America should yield some serious geopolitical shifts in the region. We could have an even stronger rapprochement between Turkey and Russia than was already underway, a rapprochement, by the way, which could well have helped tip the United States into giving a wink and a nod (and of course, as always, some cash) to Turkish rebel forces.
But that would not be the only reason for America's supporting a coup. The truth is, from the American point of view, Erdogan's erratic behavior shooting down a Russian war plane, firing artillery into Syria at American Kurdish allies, blackmailing Europe over large numbers of refugees resident in Turkish camps, and still other matters over the last few years has added uncertainty and potential instability to a strategically important region.
Even if the United States were not involved in the coup, although right now Turkey's government appears to believe firmly that it was, Putin's warning would add a powerful positive element to Russian-Turkish relations. Just as America's failure to warn Erdogan adds a new negative element to Turkish-American relations.
After all, no one is better equipped for international communication interception than the U.S. National Security Agency. If the United States were not involved, why didn't it warn Erdogan? Either way, the outcome is negative for Turkish-American relations.
One of the strongest suggestions for American involvement is the fact that Turkish jets, for bombing and fuel supplies, took off from the Incirlik Airbase during the coup. This airbase is Turkish, but has many Americans resident, including some high-level ones since there is not only a sizable air force stationed there but an estimated fifty thermonuclear bombs. The Turkish commander, Gen. Bekir Ercan Van, was in daily contact with the Americans and sought asylum in the United States before he was arrested by Turkey.
Putin's Resistance to Coups
If it is true that Putin warned Erdogan, this would also be the second time Putin has blunted the success of a major American-inspired coup, as he very much did in Ukraine. Seems as though poor old America, for all its grossly swollen and over-paid security services, just cannot run a good coup anymore.

Russian President Vladimir Putin addresses UN General Assembly on Sept. 28, 2015. (UN Photo)

Putin is disliked by Washington's establishment precisely because he successfully blunted a huge and costly operation in Ukraine, so disliked that NATO has been pushed dangerously into something resembling the terrifying preparations for Hitler's Operation Barbarossa in Eastern Europe, 1941.
And, of course, Putin also has thwarted the American effort to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad with paid and supplied proxy forces of mercenaries and religious maniacs. Interestingly, Erdogan has been a key player there. French intelligence has just estimated that even now about a hundred thugs cross the border from Turkey into Syria each week.
If Putin has now also stopped a Turkish adventure, the hissing in Washington will likely become much louder.
A new relationship between Turkey and Russia offers a lot of possibilities, none of them favorable from America's point of view, the restart of the Turkish Stream natural gas project being just one.
And if Europe speaks up or acts too strongly against Erdogan's counter-coup measures, there's always the possibility of a new release of refugees from Turkish camps, something which could genuinely destabilize the European Union after so many other recent woes. And smooth control of the E.U. has been one of America's chief policy objectives for years.
Of course, we should remember that Churchill's famous quote about a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma originally applied to Russia in the days of Josef Stalin. The observation may now apply to Turkey, but it does not apply to contemporary Russia. Putin's deft moves have made some of America's clumsy efforts at re-ordering the world resemble Stalin's approach to international affairs.

Drew Phipps Wrote:What truly baffles me about this situation is that it has received almost 0 airplay in the US media, especially in light of the political contest where the Republicans have a lot to gain by criticizing the incumbent's policies. A US airbase under siege? With nuclear weapons? By a purported ally in NATO? Where the purported ally alleges US involvement in a coup attempt? Nothing to see here, folks...

Quote:PEPE ESCOBAR | 23.07.2016 | OPINION

The Sultan of (Emergency) Swing

Amidst an astonishing, relentless, wide-ranging purge that shows no signs of abating, with 60,000 and counting civil servants, academics, judges, prosecutors, policemen, soldiers jailed, fired, suspended or stripped of professional accreditation, it's relatively established by now the Turkish government was very much informed a military coup was imminent on July 15. The information may have come from Russian intelligence, although neither Moscow nor Ankara will reveal any details. So, once and for all, this was no false flag.A top, secular Middle Eastern intel analyst with an Istanbul front seat view to the coup clarified the internal political context even before the widely expected proclamation of a state of emergency (if France can do it, why not Turkey?):«They knew five to six hours beforehand that a coup was in the works and let it go ahead, knowing, as they must have, that it would fail… This affair has propelled Erdogan to semi-divine status among his supporters. The way is clear for him to get what he wants, which will be a powerful presidency and removal of the secularism principle in the constitution. This would set the stage for the introduction of aspects of Sharia law. He tried this in the early years of the AKP government with the introduction of Zina, a strictly Islamic provision, which would have criminalized adultery and could have opened the door to the criminalization of other islamically illicit sexual relations as Zina is about this in general and not just adultery. But when the EU objected he backed off».The intel source adds, «in the weeks leading up to this Erdogan had been unusually subdued. In this same period the Prime Minister had been replaced and the new one had announced a complete foreign policy reversal, including repairing relations with Syria. Did Erdogan reach the conclusion himself that the Syria policy was unsustainable, or was it forced upon him by the party elders, against the background of the tremendous damage it has done to the country in various ways, let along to Syria? If it was pushed on him, then the failed coup gives him the opportunity to reassert his authority over the top echelon of the AKP. Certainly this came at a most convenient time».Turkish historian Cam Erimtan adds to the context, explaining how «at the beginning of next month, the High Military Council of Turkey (or YAŞ, in acronymized Turkish) is set to convene and it is expected that a large number of officers will be made redundant then. The Turkish state is set to engage in a cleansing exercise, removing any and all opponents of the AKP-led government. This coup-that-was-no-coup then provides ample ammunition for a thorough culling of the ranks… even as the President has been pointing the finger across the Atlantic at the shadowy figure of Fethullah Gülen and his supposed terror organization FETÖ (Fettullahçı Terör Örgütü, or Fethullahist Terror Organization), insinuating that the coup plotters are part and parcel of this shadowy, clearly elusive, and possibly even non-existent, organization».The end result won't be pretty; «Erdoğan is now also being referred to as Turkey's Commander-in-Chief, which would indicate, among other things, that he regards the attempted coup as a personal attack on his figure. Whatever the coup plotters' motives might have been, the end result of their actions will be an even more wholehearted and enthusiastic acceptance of Erdoğan's policy of Sunnification and possibly a rather swift dismantling of the nation state that is Turkey, to be replaced by an «Anatolian federation of Muslim ethnicities», possibly linked to a revived caliphate, as well as a possible return of Sharia to Turkey».It's as if Erdogan has been blessed with a reverse Godfather effect. In Coppola's masterpiece, Michael Corleone famously says, «Just when you think you're out, they pull you back in». In Godfather Erdogan's case, just when he thought he was hopelessly entrapped, «God» as he admitted pulled him out. Talk about a Sultan of Swing.

The Lions against the Falcons

As Erdogan solidifies his internal iron grip, a formerly iron clad connection NATO/Turkey slowly dissolves into thin air. It's as if the fate of Incirlik air base was hangin' literally by a few, selected radar threads.There's extreme suspicion across the spectrum in Turkey that the Pentagon knew what the «rebels» were up to. It's a fact that not a pin drops in Incirlik without the Americans knowing it. AKP members stress the use of NATO's communication network to coordinate the putschists and thus escape Turkish intel. At a minimum, the putschists may have believed NATO would have their backs. No «NATO ally» deigned itself to warn Erdogan about the coup.Then there's the saga of the refueling tanker for the «rebel» F-16s. The tankers in Incirlik are all the same model KC-135R Stratotanker for Americans and Turks alike. They work side by side and are all under the same command; the 10th Main Tanker Base, led by Gen. Bekir Ercan Van, who was duly arrested this past Sunday as seven judges also confiscated all the control tower communications. Not by accident Gen. Bekir Ercan Van happened to be very close to Pentagon head Ash Carter.What happened in Turkish airspace after Erdogan's Gulfstream IV left the Mediterranean coast and landed in Istanbul's Ataturk airport has been largely mapped but there are still some crucial gaps in the narrative open to speculation. As Erdogan has been tight-lipped in all his interviews, one is left with a Mission Impossible-style scenario featuring «rebel» F-16s «Lion One» and «Lion Two» on a «special mission» with their transponder off; their face off with loyalist «Falcon One» and «Falcon Two»; one of the «Lions» piloted by the none other than the man who shot down the Russian Su-24 last November; the by now famous tanker that took off from Incirlik to refuel the «rebels»; and three extra pairs of F-16s that took off from Dalaman, Erzurum and Balikesir to intercept the «rebels», including the pair that protected Erdogan's Gulfsteam (which was using callsign THY 8456 to disguise it as a Turkish Airlines flight).But who was behind it all?

Erdogan on a mission from God

Notorious Saudi whistleblower «Mujtahid» caused a sensation as he revealed that the UAE not only «played a role» in the coup but also kept the House of Saud in the loop. As if this was not damning enough, the self-deposed emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad al-Thani, very close to Erdogan, has alleged that the US and another Western nation (France is a strong possibility) had staged the whole thing, with Saudi Arabian involvement. Ankara, predictably, denied all of it.Iran, on the other hand, clearly saw the long game and was a staunch supporter of Erdogan from the start. And once again no one will talk about it, of course, but Russian intel was very much aware of all these moves something added credence by President Putin's prompt phone call to Erdogan post-coup. Once again, the basic facts; every intel operative in Southwest Asia knows that without a Pentagon green light, Turkish military factions would have had an extremely hard, if not impossible, time to organize a coup. Moreover, during that fateful night, until it was clear the coup was a failure, the plotters from Washington to Brussels were not exactly being described as «evil».A top American intel source, which does not subscribe to the usual Beltway consensus, is adamant that, «the Turkish military would not have moved without the green light from Washington. The same thing was planned for Saudi Arabia in April 2014, but was blocked at the highest levels in Washington by a friend of Saudi Arabia».The source, thinking outside the box, subscribes to what should be regarded as the key, current working hypothesis; the coup took place, or was fast-forwarded, essentially «because of Erdogan's sudden rapprochement with Russia». Turks across the spectrum would add fuel to the fire, insisting that more than likely the Istanbul airport bombing was an Operation Gladio. Rumor mills from East to West are already advancing that Erdogan should leave NATO sooner or later and join the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).As much as Erdogan is an absolutely unreliable player and a loose geopolitical cannon, an invitation from Moscow-Beijing in a not too distant future may be forthcoming. Putin and Erdogan will have an absolutely crucial meeting in early August. Erdogan has been on the phone with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. What he said did send shivers throughout NATO's spine: «Today, we are determined more than ever before to contribute to the solution of regional problems hand in hand with Iran and Russia and in cooperation with them».So once again, the defining early 21st century choice is in play; NATO against Eurasia integration, with Turkey's Sultan of Swing aptly swinging right in the middle. «God» certainly toyed with the tantalizing scenario when he spoke to Erdogan on Face Time.

Paul Rigby Wrote:

Paul Rigby Wrote:One interpretation of the puzzling nature of the attempted coup that can reconcile the inconsistencies is this - that the real target of its US sponsors was not Erdogan, but the Turkish military. In allowing Erodgan to survive, vengeance against the military, the historic guarantor of the nation's increasingly imperiled secularism, was guaranteed and is duly in train.

The cloaked objective of Washington's deep state, therefore, is the collapse of the Turkish nation-state, presumably in favour of a pseudo-Caliphate.

Extract from The Moon of Alabama's post, Wide Purges After Stage-Managed Coup Will Cripple Turkey:

http://www.moonofalabama.org/2016/07/wide-purges-after-stage-managed-coup-will-cripple-turkey.html

Quote:The Turkish state is now crippled. The experience and knowledge of all those people purged now is irreplaceable. Any unexpected event, military or civil, will be met with confused and disordered responses. Despite Erdogan's current success hubris will take its toll and Erdogan's triumph will soon be followed by a deep fall.

But not before lots of Turkish military equipment, not to mention some of the US nukes in the country, have "fallen" into the hands of Daesh/ISIL etc - precisely as the CIA intended.

The Agency's Islamic Contras will then have strategic depth, direct access to the sea, and an armoury to die for.

Quote:A massive fire has erupted near a NATO base in the Buca district of Izmir province in western Turkey. Authorities are investigating a possible act of sabotage, local media report.

The inferno started on Sunday evening on the border of the Sahintepe and Mevkiinde districts. The fire engulfed the grassy wooded area and is spreading closer to NATO's military base because of strong winds.