(Newswire.net — July 17, 2016) — While analysts cope to understand what really had happened in the coup attempt in Turkey, here are some facts.
Soldiers took up positions Friday evening in Ankara and Istanbul. Explosions and gunfire had been heard in both cities. Jets were buzzing above the battle zones in front of military posts. Soldiers overtook media buildings; however, they didn’t announce their reasons for rebelling but instead, just turned the stations off.
Though the media is still under his control, Turkey president Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged civilians to fill the streets and “defend the democracy” by confronting the military. So they did.
The coup attempt lasted until Saturday morning when troops loyal to Erdogan laid down their weapons under the pressure of the military, civilians and even Erdogan’s opposition, who condemned the coup attempt.
The Independent reports the death toll reached 265, including 100 plotters. More than 1,150 people wounded and about 2,800 Army rebels were arrested.
Within several hours from the start of the coup attempt, Mr. Erdogan flew to Istanbul’s yet unsecured airport to address the crowd. He knew who was behind the attempt. Mr. Erdogan accused Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen who lives in the U.S. (Saylorsburg, PA.)
In his address, live on the Haberturk news channel, Turkish Secretary of Labor, Süleyman Soylu, said “The US is behind this coup”. He said Turkey demands the U.S. to extradite the cleric.
U.S. Secretary of State, John Kerry, said that the U.S. hasn’t yet received official extradition request for Gulen, and told CBC that it won’t: “Gulen much more useful as an offshore bogeyman.” Mr. Erdogan, however, said in his public address, that he urged President Obama to arrest Mr. Gulen, CNN reports.
The interesting fact is that Erdogan and Gulen were friends and political partners, until 2013, when Gulen accused Erdogan of corruption. Erdogan blacklisted Gulen, who settled in the U.S. as a farmer.
Analysts say this coup attempt was unbelievably sloppy for experienced military generals who made a lot of serious mistakes. This fact is particularly interesting given that the Turkish military has experience with coups.
From the time of the founder of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Pasha, later called Ataturk, the Turkish military was set as a guarantor of democracy. The military has overthrown several Turkish government’s that showed tendencies to move towards authoritarianism, or that deviate from secularism, the last time being in the early 80s.
It is unclear how experienced military personnel organized the coup so badly, military analysts wonder.
Another interesting fact is that the generals who attempted the coup were secular oriented, like Gulen, whom Erdogan accuses of radicalism. In fact, Mr. Erdogan has been frequently criticized by the EU, Russia, and even the U.S., who considers him a valuable partner in the war in Syria, for leaning towards radical Islam, pushing Turkey slowly into sharia ruling.
Moscow accused Mr. Erdogan of supporting ISIS. The Kremlin directly connected Erdogan’s son’s oil company to secretly buying oil from ISIS and smuggling it from Syria to Turkey. After the Russian Air Force destroyed a convoy of oil trucks heading to Turkey, Russian Bomber Sukhoi was shot down by a Turkish fighter jet.
The move aggravated Moscow who banned all import and export services, which created a huge economic blow to Turkey.
Although the relationship between the two countries deteriorated to its lowest, only a few days before the coup attempt, Mr. Erdogan publicly apologized to Russia.
Various analysts agree that the coup attempt is not the end, but merely the beginning of something far more dangerous. It is not a secret that Mr. Erdogan has ambitions to seize ultimate power such as the Sultans had in the Ottoman Empire, while he constantly emphasizes he is doing it in the name of democracy.
In constant state of civil war against the Kurds that make up half of the country, Turkey has been under scrutiny by the UN. Ankara was criticized for exclusively targeting Kurdish fighters, who actually fight ISIS at the border with Syria.
After the coup attempt, the world fears Erdogan will use the situation to finish by force, the conflict with the Kurd’s, and all the opponents and different thinkers.
According to some reports, he has already started.