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Let me give you guys some more inside details: From the start it was clear that something was weird: they weren't enough soldiers to make a real coup, only a f

Let me give you guys some more inside details: From the start it was clear that something was weird: they weren't enough soldiers to make a real coup, only a few hundred soldiers a few helicopters, tanks, etc... And it seems that they knew it and did it despite that. By the way they even bombed the house where the President was supposed to be... The coup attempt was made by members of a religious group named "Nurcu" leaded by Fetullah Güllen, who is in exile in the U.S.A. ... It was known that members of this group had infiltrated every possible area of the government (possible, legal branch, army,etc...) Yes this group was the biggest ally of Erdogan during more than 10 years and it is mainly because of Erdogan that these people infiltrated so well every aspect of the government. They together imprisoned falsely reporters, policemen and soldiers claiming they were attempting to make a coup. They even imprisoned the former Chief of Staff. And those idiots in the AKP government and people who supported Erdogan were cheering them because they were getting rid of "secular" forces in the army. Now irony is these same people are doing exactly what they were supposedly trying to prevent: Make a Coup. The Turkish army was always saying that the biggest danger for the country was religious backwardness(irtica) and unfortunately it has proven right again. Although they were shots fired to civilians and to cops, the civilian crowds didn't hurt the few soldiers on the streets they grab them and handed them to the police. The situation is getting better, the Chief of Staff was saved (he was hostage by these people) the commanding officers are calling these soldiers back to their base to be arrested. Most of them are coming back. They even shot a helicopter("rebel") with an F-16. I think the situation will settle in maximum 24H. Unfortunately I think this will give Erdogan more power and leverage on the long run and drive the country deeper in insanity. Turkey is on its way to become the "Pakistan" to Syria/Irak, the Afghanistan of the middle-east. For the better or the worse the only thing keeping Turkey from being another middle-eastern country was(unfortunately) the army.

usrusr 10y ago
So this has already been a coup of the post-kemalist turkish army formed by Erdogan and his (former) allies? I was hoping that claims of the coupists being Gülen followers were just attempts to put a kemalist attempt into a bad light ("islamic terrorsist"), but then maybe I and, I guess, many other casual outside observers have been underestimating the amount of change that has already happened since the last time the army has acted as a weird but reliable consitutional safeguard.
- mustaflex 10y ago
  Yes, and the unfortunate thing is that it is Erdogan and his government that made this possible but the people will likely not remember how these people where best buddies and how their undermined every possible institution in Turkey in order to suppress the seculars in the army. But they never thought while they were throwing hundreds of officers into prison, Gulen's movement were pushing their people into the right places. In Summary these "genius" in the government never saw what was really happening, it took them 12 years(!) to understand what's going on, and now they have to figure out how to weed out all these sleeping cells. It is true that the situation is much more complicated then what it seems, and the irony is that Erdogan will likely seek the help of his old enemies, the seculars in the army to clean this mess up.

usrusr 10y ago

So this has already been a coup of the post-kemalist turkish army formed by Erdogan and his (former) allies? I was hoping that claims of the coupists being Gülen followers were just attempts to put a kemalist attempt into a bad light ("islamic terrorsist"), but then maybe I and, I guess, many other casual outside observers have been underestimating the amount of change that has already happened since the last time the army has acted as a weird but reliable consitutional safeguard.

mustaflex 10y ago
Yes, and the unfortunate thing is that it is Erdogan and his government that made this possible but the people will likely not remember how these people where best buddies and how their undermined every possible institution in Turkey in order to suppress the seculars in the army. But they never thought while they were throwing hundreds of officers into prison, Gulen's movement were pushing their people into the right places. In Summary these "genius" in the government never saw what was really happening, it took them 12 years(!) to understand what's going on, and now they have to figure out how to weed out all these sleeping cells. It is true that the situation is much more complicated then what it seems, and the irony is that Erdogan will likely seek the help of his old enemies, the seculars in the army to clean this mess up.