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Whither Turkey?
A friend of the blog passes on these comments:
I have just been watching the “Breaking News” about the military coup in Turkey and have been appalled at the historical ignorance of what all of these talking heads, Wolf Blitzer, et al are telling the American people.
Not a single anchorperson has referred to the Turkish military’s traditional role as the protector of Kemal Ataturk’s original 1920’s military coup to make Turkey a modern sectarian state rather than an Islamist Ottoman oligarchy. This was just following Turkey’s defeat in WWI and the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire, which was aligned with Germany during the war.
All of the anchors keep referring to the coup using the phrase “the coup is attempting to overthrow the democratically elected government of Erdogan.” Not a single one has appended that statement with the explanatory note that Erdogan, whose Party is the Islamist Party in Turkey, has used his term in office to slowly restrict free speech, crackdown on a free press, suppress opposition parties, and wage endless wars against the Kurds while tacitly supporting Jihadist groups in Syria who are aligned with ISIS. His aim was to become a permanent ruler in an Islamist state.
Another interesting sideline that our MSM carefully stays away from is analyzing the potential conflicts within the U.S. government which this coup presents.On one hand there must exist very close ties between the U.S. military and Turkish military, since we jointly use Incirlik air base for operations. Then there is the State Department, who is probably having kiniptions over the deal that we signed with Erdogan for Turkey to hold hundreds of thousands of Iraqi-Syrian refugees from entering Europe.
There still is very testy question of how we can do any business with a coup government that has overthrown a NATO member government. Of course our morals on that are very loose since we helped the Egyptian military overthrow their government, but they didn’t belong to NATO.
My feeling is that this coup is long overdue and the outcome can be positive for returning Turkey to a more open society. Turkey, under Erdogan and his party, were aligned with Saudi Arabia and the Gulf regressive kingdoms so a sectarian Turkey may cut that tie. A little light in an otherwise dismal outlook.
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lindaj said...
1thank you for this. lame stream media is on a crash misinformation course.
what with the coup “against democracy” in Turkey and the medicated malcontent who mowed down all those poor people in Nice. the guy must must must be a part of ISIS–he just must be a terrorist! no matter that no one can find any links to jihadis, etc. BBC just KNOWS he is a terrorist.
he may turn out to be one, but these people have convicted him with conjecture alone.
07/15/16 11:46 PM | Comment Link
bloodypitchfork said...
2All those questions will be moot shortly.
07/16/16 2:51 AM | Comment Link
bloodypitchfork said...
3Meanwhile….
https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0QutjdkZLLk/V4ZxwJARviI/AAAAAAAAhrA/9OYhqJFVYdUc709VMC_PCue1euhgKuFygCLcB/s1600/fucking%2Bpokemon.jpg
07/16/16 2:57 AM | Comment Link
Whither Turkey? https://wemeantwell.com/blog/2016/07/15/whither-turk… | Dr. Roy Schestowitz (罗伊) said...
4[…] Turkey? https://wemeantwell.com/blog/2016/07/15/whither-turkey/ […]
07/16/16 5:06 AM | Comment Link
rich bauer said...
5Word to the wise, the average viewer of CNN only cares about Turkey because that’s where they got their rugs. No one cares what or who cries Wolf.
07/16/16 6:11 AM | Comment Link
teri said...
6Gee, whiz, so the phrase “democratically elected” means everything, [everything, I tell you!] when it comes to defending one of our “crucial allies” in the War of Terror, and these words will be repeated until they it stick firmly as permanent adjectives in front of Erdogan’s name. I.e., until every journalist in the country and all the Americans who can’t find Turkey on a map can say “the democratically elected Erdogan” by rote.
On the other hand, the same phrase, which can be equally applied and is entirely correct, must never be used before the name of al Assad of Syria. Instead, we must substitute the adjectives “brutal”, or “tyrant” in front of his name or use the qualifier “regime” behind it. Because we have desperately been trying to coup him out of office for about 5 or 6 years now. This renders his election in his own country a moot point.
I hope you kids are taking notes, because there WILL be a test, oh, around Jan. 8 or so when the great war-pig Hillary moves into the WH.
07/16/16 8:04 AM | Comment Link
rich bauer said...
7Whither the American Turkey?
Ben Franklin wished the Bald Eagle had not been chosen the representative of our country. “He is a bird of bad moral character. He does not get his Living honestly. You may have seen him perched on some dead tree near the river, where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the labor of the Fishing Hawk; and when that diligent Bird has at length taken a fish, and is bearing it to his nest for the support of his mate and young ones, the Eagle pursues him and takes it from him.”
“With all this injustice, he is never in good case but like those among men who live by sharping & robbing he is generally poor and often very lousy. Besides he is a rank coward: The little King Bird not bigger than a Sparrow attacks him boldly and drives him out of the district. He is therefore by no means a proper emblem for the brave and honest Cincinnati of America who have driven all the King birds from our country…
For the truth the Turkey is in comparison a much more respectable bird, and withal a true original native of America.”
If only the Dodo was a true native…
07/16/16 8:51 AM | Comment Link
bloodypitchfork said...
8hmmm,.. one commenter @ emptywheel thinks this coup MAY have been orchestrated by Erdogan himself?
quote”Via Twitter, most reliable takes sound like Erdoğan orchestrated this, so he could further remove counterweights to his power.”unquote
https://www.emptywheel.net/2016/07/16/stuffing-turkey/
I wouldn’t put it past that scumsucking creep.
07/16/16 10:53 AM | Comment Link
Sokollu said...
9Peter, thanks for this insightful article. Erdogan is bad news. I deplore military coups but Erdogan’s creeping authoritarianism had been combined with a slide toward the Saudis and all they represent. I have Turkish friends – educated English speakers – who have been protesting against Erdogan since 2008. The room for free expression has been incrementally but inexorably narrowing. God help them now.
07/16/16 12:28 PM | Comment Link
bloodypitchfork said...
10Ha..like Murika doesn’t have it’s own coup d’etat’s waiting in the wings…
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/thousands-fbi-officials-prep-rnc-cleveland-article-1.2714299
07/16/16 9:22 PM | Comment Link
bloodypitchfork said...
11If ever there was the biggest Ringling Brothers Circus in the history of the US, ready to unfold it’s 3 rings of Muses… Cleveland is about to be inundated with every facet of snake oil to every iteration of the Shell game known to mankind.
07/16/16 9:27 PM | Comment Link
Bruce said...
12Moar like, wither turkey!
07/16/16 9:54 PM | Comment Link
sglover said...
13I can only imagine Blitzer yammering about Turkey. Can that half-wit even locate Ankara on a map?!?!
I think the German media, particularly Deutsche Welle and Der Spiegel, are your best bet for good international news coverage. Or at least for news from the European/Mediterranean region. Al Jazeera’s good, too.
But when it comes to **any** topic outside of sports and celebrities, American media is totally out of its depth. Even if an American media conglomerate maintains a bureau in, say, Istanbul, how likely is it that the “correspondent ever ventures beyond the hotel bar? Look at how Fred Hiatt “covered” Russia when he was stationed in the Moscow Hyatt.
07/16/16 11:11 PM | Comment Link
rich bauer said...
14Speaking of a couple of real turkeys, Trump and Pence (T-P)are meant for each other. One shitty hand wipes the other.
http://11oclocknews.typepad.com/the_11_oclock_news/2016/06/donald-trump-is-a-damn-turd-pol-.html
07/17/16 7:38 PM | Comment Link
rich bauer said...
15GOP’s Trump Dump – It’s HUUUUUUGE
07/17/16 8:12 PM | Comment Link