Quote Originally Posted by zooruka View Post
I can’t wait for the day the military rise up a stage a coupe? They tried a couple of years ago but failed due to lack of support or coordination? Erdogan is going to fail eventually, because he is trying to change Turkey from it’s s original intended purpose. Ataturk founded Turkey as a secular state (IIRC) with the military as the protectors of that state/those freedoms. So eventually something will give because what he is doing is contrary to Turkish society and beliefs?
Nobody wants coups, all they do is take the country back 10 years. So popular support for coups are done. There's been a military coup in Turkey nearly every decade. The odd thing is a junta has never run Turkey, the army doesn't like the government they dispose of them and then call for an election. The military now is done though, no power at all. Those days are long gone. The people won't support it either.

Quote Originally Posted by Hal Incandenza View Post
Some the 2016 coup was staged by Erdogan, some say it was a fumbled attempt by part of the military. As an outsider it's hard to say what happened. What I can say is that Erdogan used the failed coup attempt for the Cleansing of all Cleansing. You wouldn't even believe how many people were put in jail or lost their jobs. He came down hard on anybody who was considered critical of the regime, in several waves apart in time.
In my view no it wasn't a false flag. It was a legit attempt by an islamist cult within the military to first overthrow the military and then the government. It failed. My theory is though and it's been reported. The government knew about the plot and they didn't do anything. They just let it ride out in order to capitalise from it. They knew the military won't do anything because none of the chief Generals were involved, it was all the lower guys. The government knew them name by name because they were the ones who promoted them in the first place. The coup started and everyone knew something was off here. Turkey's had plenty coups before and not once has the military fired on the people. This one though gunships and F-16's fired on the people and they made an open attempt to kill Erdogan. Even though the gov knew what was going on I don't think they could predict how brazen the coup plotters could get. This shook Erdogan and made him paranoid. It's the main reason why he bought Russian anti-aircraft missiles. Turkey runs more F-16's than everyone else apart from the US. Erdogan bought a missile system to protect himself from his own military's jets. It's also why he grew to be more anti-American. They knew that the coup plotters got in contact with the American command at the US military base in Turkey. In contrast Putin called Erdogan during the coup and said he had Russian commandos nearby in Greece to help him if help was needed.

In the aftermath Erdogan used this as a way to cleanup. Not every Gulenist was arrested, some had a choice to side with Erdogan. Those who did walked away free, others paid their way out. $1million got people free apparently. All the lower dudes were thrown in jail and lost their jobs, 300,000 were purged from government institutions. With all these people sacked from their jobs, Erdogan replaced them with those loyal to him. Other Islamist cults who are loyal to Erdogan now have their followers fill up crucial positions within the institutions.

It's also politically made the government incredibly suspicious of the US and more pro-Russia. They had no issue losing out on F-35's, a jet which Turkey was going to build itself, the only country given that permission. 2 decades of planning, they even built an aircraft carrier for those jets, now they don't have them you have a useless aircraft carrier. $12billion investment in Turkish defence companies. The F-35's in Europe would be serviced in Turkey. It was a huge deal but they didn't care because the government doesn't trust the Americans anymore and well they paranoid. What if someone in the military has an itch. You can't hand this sort of equipment in the hands of secularist military academy graduates. Reason why they also shut down Turkey's military academies. Age old academies formed in the Ottoman era all gone. Now they buy shit from Russia.