Yeah 6000 soldiers and 3000 judges detained. They are just rounding up anyone who isn't of the same thought as them. This is the actual coup not what happened Friday night.
Let me give some details and my theory on what happened, because this is some Game of Thrones type of shit. I think some Generals in the army were led on, the idea of a coup was thrown out and some grabbed it. On Friday they acted but only the airforce fell for this, the rest of the military stayed where it was. So like the Airforce ran for a fight thinking the rest would follow, only a small handful followed.
If this was a coup with the intentions of bringing secular democracy back to Turkey, the ways of Ataturk then I think people would have supported. Not the Erdogan supporters but the 40% in the country, the secularists. But this was perceived as a coup by Gulen supporters so nobody wanted any part of it.
The Generals who started the coup all became Generals or went up in rank 6 years ago. 6 years ago there was the Ergenekon and Sledgehammer trials. Loads of Generals including the chief of staff and other leading officers were imprisoned. 6 years ago the best soldiers were in prison being deemed terrorists. Erdogan and Gulen worked together to rid the army of the top Generals, who were the biggest threat to both of them. Ofcourse you still need Generals, so 6 years ago they promoted people left right and centre, not on merit but out of necessity. So the Generals who started this coup were actually handpicked by the Government to take the roles.
70 Generals took the bait and started this coup. Mostly Airforce guys, they say around 600 pilots have been arrested. At the moment Turkey pretty much has no Airforce pilots left, if someone starts a war the F-16's will be grounded. Its also a ridiculous idea that all these pilots are supporters of Gulen or the Generals. Getting into Military academy is not easy at all, its not easy to infiltrate either unlike the Police academies.
The coup fixed all of Erdogan's problems. Leading up to this in the past week a lot of Turks were angry at Erdogan even his own supporters because he put forward the idea of giving the 3million Syrians in Turkey citizenship. There was the bomb attacks by ISIS and the ongoing war in the south east with the PKK. Oh by the way the PKK, Turkeys arch nemesis has not been heard of since Friday. Usually every day for the past year there was a bomb attack or an ambush on soldiers, 2-3 soldiers dying a day. Where is the PKK? why are they so quiet, you would think with the army in complete disarray they would act. I mean the General in charge of the armies in the south east has been arrested and the PKK has done nothing to capitalise. Even soldiers fighting in the south east have posted countless times on social media how they don't want to be labelled traitors and some have even said 'its better to be fighting in the south east because atleast we know who the enemy is'. The army is in the worst state it has ever been in.
Right now the Erdogan supporters have flocked to the streets in every city. You know what they are chanting apart from Religious slogans. They are playing Ottoman war music, calling Erdogan commander in chief, they keep referencing the Ottoman empire, Islam and the Prophet. They mention the war for independence but go on about the religious leaders in the war, nothing about Ataturk and his comrades. They are calling for the death penalty to be reinstated, in a funeral today the imam said 'my Allah protect us from the educated in this country' lol. The educated meaning the secular are a threat.
The TV channels, even the ones perceived as Anti-Erdogan are in full Erdogan ass licking mode. Religious poems are being read out, adverts with Erdogan, Ottoman music etc etc. No mention about the values of the Republic, how important secularism is and how the rule of law is important. Only Islam, Islam and more Islam. They are showing live pictures from Mecca where the imams there are praying for Erdogan and Turkey.
Erdogan got what he wanted, he can now clean the army out and judiciary without any objection. No opposition party can say a thing they will be labelled traitors immediately. The biggest threat to the AKP was from the far right who was looking for a new leader to replace its current leader. A new leader for the far right mean't that they would grab loads of nationalist votes from the AKP. Now the political analysts are saying that the opposition for the far right are Gulenists and we mustn't allow them to takeover the far right. Very convenient isn't it? The far right nationalists are a key party in the elections their current leader is an old fool who nobody likes, if he goes a lot of people will vote for them. Even the liberal left looked upon leadership change in that party as a way of weakening Erdogan. Thats not going to happen now.
Whats happening in Turkey right now is very sad, it pisses me off. I was always against the harsh and sometimes violent secularism the Turkey of 20 years ago had put in place. However after seeing the pious in the country rule I gotta say that Ataturk had a point. You cannot give them a chance because they will do everything to as they say go back to their Ottoman roots. This isn't Turkish nationalism either, a pro-government and pro-Ottoman historian was on TV the other day saying the idea of Turkishness was created by the Jews. This is what mind set of a lot of Erdogan supporters is. They hate the idea of the Republic and secularism, for them the Ottoman empire is everything, this great empire which was perfect. Thats the image thats been taught in schools and more importantly the media recently has been pushing out a lot of pro-Ottoman TV dramas, documentaries and other programs. 30-40 years ago people were taught that the Ottomans fucked up and that religion was a big part in why the empire declined. Now people are taught that the English, French and Jews brought an end to the empire with their evil scheming.
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