Turkish military coup failed
According to the Associated Press, the military coup in Turkey against the Recep Tayyip Erdogan government has failed.
Erdogan was on a seaside vacation when tanks rolled into the streets of Ankara and Istanbul. He flew home early Saturday and declared the coup to have failed.
The uprising appears not to have been backed by the most senior ranks of the military, and Turkey’s main opposition parties quickly condemned the attempted overthrow of the government. Gen. Umit Dundar, newly appointed as acting chief of the general staff, said the plotters were mainly officers from the Air Force, the military police and the armored units.
Prime Minister Benali Yildirim said 161 people were killed and 1,440 wounded in the overnight violence. He said 2,839 plotters were detained. A source at the office of the presidency, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with government rules, said the 161 toll “excludes assailants.”
A group of the lead plotters flew to Greece in a Turkish Army helicopter and asked for asylum. I guess they had planned for failure, not for success – that’s why coups fail in the modern era. In the good old days, it was a fight to the death. Last man standing.
Category: Politics
So this would have been number five but they lost there back bone
I wonder how many of the Coup’s leaders supporters had a similar means of safe exit. Probably not too many.
Too bad this coup was not successful….I know Obama is pleased.
I can’t wait for November and then January.
I can’t wait for January period. That bastard can still do lots of damage between November and January. He’s proven time and again he doesn’t give a shit what anyone thinks of him.
Word ^^^^^
The ‘stang strikes again!!
You’re absolutely correct.
I can’t imagine anyone with half a brain (yes, I include President Obama in that statement) was ‘pleased’ with this. Erdogan is a nutjob of epic proportions.
That said, various heads of state had to say they supported the democratically-elected president (Erdogan), both as a supporter of the principle of democratic elections and once it became clear that the coup wasn’t going to succeed. We have a pretty big base in Turkey; we don’t want to screw up relations by telling a still-sitting President there that we hope he basically gets overthrown.
Unfortunately all this poorly executed coup attempt did was solidify this guy’s power. A few years back he replaced a lot of top leadership in the military with hardline supporters and this gives him reason to round up many more. God dammit.
“Unfortunately all this poorly executed coup attempt did was solidify this guy’s power.” You may be right. Stalin’s officer corps purges worked b/c, when it came down to it, the ‘worker soldiers’ probably enjoyed it at a certain psychological level and were themselves safe. The young officers saw their disappearing elders as opportunities to advance their careers. Together these factors meant success for Stalin, in terms of his personal safety. So, I don’t expect Estrogen/Cardigan/Whatever will be restrained in cleansing the military. As I see it, whether he is viewed by the general public as vengeful will depend on how he deals with the common soldiers who participated in the coup. We’ll see.
Cardigan? No, Lord Cardigan was on of the officers serving in the Crimean War. I believe he was involved in the Light Brigade. There was also a Lord Raglan. I kid you not, that was his name. Fancy being remembered for a sweater, or how a sleeve insert is cut.
It’s all in here:
http://www.victorianweb.org/history/crimea/beck/2.html
Ex-Ph2: Have you ever read any of the Flashman series of books? I know that you like history and those books are the best historical fiction I have ever read. They are set in the Victorian era, primarily in England although the “hero” (he’s a cad, a coward and a womanizer) travels the world getting into one misadventure or another.
I cannot recommend the series highly enough!
Flatly disagree, LC. The current
gang of fools in DCAdministration backed every “populist uprising” during the “Arab Spring” NQA – to include in Libya, Yemen, and Egypt – simply because it “was the will of the people” and “supported the democratic process”. They didn’t seem to give a damn whether the outcome they were supporting was in the US national interest or not.This one seems no different. Here’ they’re again “supporting the democratic process” – even when that means an Islamist dictator will remain in power in a key area in the eastern Mediterranean. A more secular regime would clearly be in the US best interest.
Yes, I realize that means I’m saying the current Administration is clueless, naive, and incompetent. Yes, they are. Well, either that or they’re deliberately working against long-term US interests. Take your pick.
Alex, I’ll take both incompetent and working against long-term U.S. interests for $1000. Oh, and you might as well include not caring about his legacy for $800.
‘Who is Obama?’
I’d say incompetence is always a factor, it is implied. What we don’t know is to what degree, depending on the situation.
Sadat was firmly in power too, but that didn’t help his life expectancy. Probably good odds that this guy will end up the same way.
Follow the money trail. Most likely some of the cash Nobozzo gave back to Iran paid fore this.
Bummer. This will have ominous implications for Turkey and the world. Erdogan is a bad, bad boy.
Now he appears stronger than ever. One tweet yesterday summed it up: “They wanted to make him a (deposed Egyptian Islamist President) Morsi, instead they have made him a Putin.”
Ugh!?
I wonder how these things work on the unit level. I mean, I get that senior officers in one country or another have staged coups before, sometimes successfully and sometimes not, but how does this work on the micro level? How does one get a squad, platoon, or company to take up arms against fellow soldiers and civilians who oppose the coup? I can’t imagine that talk and planning is freely discussed for weeks or months beforehand. That wouldn’t be wise. Maybe, being an American, I just can’t grasp how this works.
This is really a key point because apparently that was part of what failed last night-some units were sent to do things like secure the bridge over the Bosporus and weren’t ready when they met resistance and surrendered. You can’t really plan and train beyond only what can be done in secrecy.
I wonder if having units with an ethnic or regional affiliation has any effect-maybe you tell the troops “alright, now we’re going to go give those (insert name of regional rivals who are on the other side of the coup attempt) bastards what for.”
The rank-and-file soldiers who participated in the coup didn’t know it was a coup. They were told they were participating in maneuvers. One said he didn’t know what was really happening until there were angry civilians climbing up on his tank.
As an American Army Vet, I have a hard time understanding the ordinary Turkish soldiers mindset that these were just,“maneuvers”.
Hey tank driver, you just mashed some people into hamburger!
Hey Cobra Pilot, your firing streams of live 20mm down into a city!
WTF!!
Turkish Soldiers are taught very quickly to obey orders. If someone says, “Shoot that building downtown” they better do it quickly.
They don’t have anywhere near the level of “WTF, Sir?” that we do.
Does this mean they don’t get fast tracked into the EU now?
Regarding Jonn’s “plan to fail” comment above – not sure I agree. Coups are always “iffy” – and the consequences of failure in that part of the world are a tad severe for those who fail. Having an escape plan if worst-case happens seems to me no more than proper emergency planning.
I wonder, how many of their family members did they squeeze into that helicopter? Or, were they left to the tender mercies of the winners?
Probably would have succeeded if only they had allowed homosexuals and transgendered people to serve openly and they had allowed women in combat MOS’s. Oh, and they changed camoflauge uniforms every few years… That would have done it. Instead, the Turkish military is either not effective enough or too effective.
/sarc
You forgot the reflective PT belts. Must have the reflective PT belts.
“Probably would have succeeded if only they had allowed homosexuals and transgendered people to serve openly and they had allowed women in combat MOS’s.”
And “those meddling kids” never forget the interference of “those meddling kids” in messing up nefarious plans.
Did any coup members walk on the grass? That could have been their downfall.
Well things got sideways when some had their sleeves rolled up and some had third down. Confusion and chaos ensued.
I thought I heard some had them rolled out and some rolled in?
I know this is a serious news story. But I’m sorry, every time I heard headlines from this yesterday the following scene came to mind:
https://youtu.be/8Oeb8nhNJOU
I always thought that if you wanted to successfully overthrow a ruler your first priority was to prevent him from rallying supporters. Either kill him or isolate him. As experienced as the Turkish military is with these things you would think they would know that.
Yeah, I figured last night that I’d hear that Erdogan had had a fatal heart attack, or perhaps a swimming accident.
If you don’t pay attention to the important details, they’ll inevitably end up biting you.
Today a bunch of judges were fired. Like that list was just made up this morning./s. Fishy as hell
This morning, I heard on the radio that John Kerry stated the United States would help investigate the coup by the Turkish Army.
Shouldn’t the United States stay out of Turkey’s business?
I’d prefer Kerry stay out of the United States’ business.
Mr. Kerry has never learned to mind his own business. He’s too busy being important.