A coup in Turkey before any attack on Iran ??

[Peter Presland]

In light of Erdogan's very public put-down of Shimon Peres over Operation Cast Lead, together with his subsequent NATO-displeasing policy shifts on Israel in the denoument to the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, this seems to me like a VERY plausible prognosis and forecast for unfolding events in Turkey.

From Aangirfan's blog:

Before any attack on Iran, there may be a military coup in Turkey.

Turkey's government is friendly with Iran and has fallen out with Israel.

On 1 August 2010, Turkey's Supreme Military Council held the second day of its annual meeting to discuss promotions and dismissals of officers in the armed forces, then this Turkish Military Council seeks the promotion of coup suspects

The military wants to promote 11 generals who have been charged with plotting to bring down the government. Reportedly, Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called for a cancellation of the promotions for the 11 generals. But he lacks the power to cancel appointments wanted by the generals.

Abdullah Gul, the president, does have that power because Military Council decisions become law only after being signed by the president. In the past, no president has dared veto the military’s plans. Reportedly, Gul has asked the military not to go ahead with the promotions, hinting that he would not sign the Yas documents if the 11 generals were promoted.

A Turkish court recently issued arrest warrants for the 11 generals and 91 other serving and retired officers, with dozens of generals among them. They are to stand trial in December 2010 for their suspected participation in a plan, code-named Sledgehammer. Allegedly, Sledgehammer was hatched in 2003 and called for a coup against the government of Mr Erdogan.

According to the prosecution, the plotters planned to bomb a mosque in Istanbul and to provoke tensions with Greece in an effort to cause unrest and prepare the ground for a military coup. Only one of the 102 suspects has been arrested so far. The others have appealed against their arrest warrants. Some officers, including retired high-ranking generals, are standing trial as suspected members of Ergenekon, a fascist group with links to the CIA and Mossad.

Constitutional amendments designed to curb the generals’ political influence will be put to a referendum in September 2010.

The government is struggling to deal with a fresh wave of attacks by Kurdish rebels, who are said to be backed by Ergenekon, the CIA and Mossad.

What with the escalating Israeli-Lebanon skirmishing; renewed Gaza and West-Bank/Jerusalem conflict and the incessant rhetoric about Iran - plus a whole lot more bubbling away under the surface - ie how about this for an example of US insider pot-stirring? - Daniel Pipes interview with the 'Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry' in the July/August edition of "Israel - My Glory" magazine no less:

Daniel Pipes: I think it's realistic for the Israelis to attack [Iran] and do real damage. Now, what constitutes success, I'm not exactly sure. There are many, many questions.

If I were [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu, I would say to [U.S. President Barack] Obama:

"Why don't you take out the Iranian nukes? Or else we will. And we will not do it by trying to fly planes across Turkey and Syria or Jordan or Saudi Arabia. We will do it from submarine-based, tactical nuclear weapons. You don't want that; we don't want that; but that's the way we can do this job for sure. You do it your way so we don't have to escalate to that."

That would be a way of applying pressure. There are so many details which I'm not privy to. But that would be my kind of approach if I were the Israelis.

Nice Christian/Jewish 'Love thy neighbour' and 'do unto others' guys eh?

The Middle-Eastern pot gives every impression of approaching boil-over point to me.

Stand by