Coup Underway in Turkey

[Peter Lemkin]

You can't be a real Sultan and be best buddies with Israel.

If his purges cut off the Guelen and CIA tenticles then so be it I say.

Erdogan could very well have prevented Turkey from becoming another Egypt...

I don't like the man myself but there doesn't seem like many other options atm.

Pre-'coup' there was a law put on the books in Turkey that made it illegal to speak disrespectfully of the President and many in the media were arrested or lost their jobs based on this law. Now there is an official State of Emergency and Erdogan can unilaterally bypass the Parliament in making arrests, decisions, regulations, suspend rights, et al. This was for three months..but I'm sure will be extended and extended as is being done in France. Once one starts on the path away from democracy, there is a tendency to never return short of a revolution.

I think Turkey is well on its way to becoming another Egypt if via a different formula.

I don't like any of the major players in this. Both Gulan and Erdogan want to Islamisize Turkey and move away from a secular democracy. Secret actors, be they CIA or others, are bad and need exposure. Ataturk will be turning in his grave as the secular and democratic principals he founded Turkey upon are now in tatters even though I see behind Erdogan there is sometimes an image of Ataturk. Turkey under Erdogan had already become a very polarized nation - with two sets of women, for example: one who wore a scarf at all times, the others very westernized in their dress and lifestyle. The 'westernized' secular Turks are now under attack and keeping a very low profile to not be arrested. They are the ones thinking of leaving. I often meet them here in Prague, and other than that they are speaking in Turkish one could not in their dress or way they live their lives distinguish them from the standard European. I think Erdogan is more of a danger than you seem to think even if this 'coup' was an illegal action against him - he was no champion of democracy to begin with. It is a mess and Turkey is a very powerful and populous nation. It is also in the middle [overtly and covertly] in all the major geopolitical events in the Middle East and some beyond. They are the second largest military contributor to NATO and the largest supplier of both weapons and aide in Syria.