Turkey trot open thread
I was on the phone with a friend when he suddenly started yelling, “Oh, my God! Oh, my God!” He had just received in his email a news bulletin announcing a military takeover in Turkey. First reports indicated that the takeover was led by mid-level military officers accusing the government of having destroyed secular democracy in Turkey. (An accurate accusation.) That there were no high-level officers is unsurprising, because Erdogan purged them all. That all sounded good.
Unfortunately, the takeover did not include Erdogan’s immediate execution. It appears now that he has rallied mobs and troops to his side and is putting down the revolt.
The al-Sisi moment may have passed . . . or maybe not. It’s a very volatile situation, one that, even if it calms down (no doubt with a great deal of post-coup repression) could flare up again at any time.
The only thing I can say with certainty is that Turkey is unstable and will not be a nice place of its citizens at any time in the near future.
What are your thoughts on the coup?
(Speaking of al-Sisi, just as Obama sided with the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, in Turkey he’s siding with the sharia-promoting, Islamist Erdogan, who has worked to undo 90 years of secular democracy in Turkey. I can pretty much predict that, whatever Obama is for, I’m against it.)