Not just a few colonels
An army group in Turkey says it has taken over the country, with soldiers at strategic points in Istanbul and jets flying low in the capital, Ankara.
A statement read on TV said a “peace council” now ran the country and there was a curfew and martial law.
Erdogan is saying no it hasn’t, this is just some hotheads. He told the people to resist and that he’d be there to help as soon as possible.
PM Binali Yildirim had earlier denounced an “illegal action” by a military “group”, stressing it was not a coup. He said that the government remained in charge.
The military group’s statement on national broadcaster TRT, read by an announcer, said that democratic and secular rule of law had been eroded by the current government. There would be new constitution, it said.
This isn’t the first time secularism has been defended (or imposed, depending on your point of view) by the military.
One European Union source told Reuters that the military action “looks like a relatively well-orchestrated coup by a substantial body of the military, not just a few colonels”.
Visiting Moscow, US Secretary of State John Kerry said he hoped for peace and “continuity” in Turkey.
“Continuity” could mean a lot of things.
Overall, I’m optimistic.
Endogan has returned to Turkey and declared the coup failed. He’s already said those in charge will be executed.
I have to confess to being conflicted. On the one hand the overthrow of a democratically elected government is seldom justified. On the other, Erdogan seems to be quite successfully dragging Turkey from being a modern secular state into being a theocratic state. He’s also eroding democratic and secular government in a manner that suggests his government does not warrant the support I would normally grant to it.
Rob@2
Agreed, democratically elected governments must govern democratically. The principle doesn’t seem to be understood by most of the political elites in North Africa and the NE.
I wonder which shadowy organisation is really behind the (attempted?) coup.
Yeah, I’ve been watching the casualties rise and it seems like this will only bring sorrow.
Dear Ophelia,
Big fan of your blog. You’ve probably been asked this many times, but is there a reason your posts don’t have buttons to make them easily shareable on facebook or other social media?
Perhaps you do have good reasons, but I just wanted to say that I for one would appreciate the addition. I don’t know anyone who reads this blog or has heard of it, and I find myself describing things I read about here to them, and doing a poor job of it. You cover things that I don’t see covered elsewhere, and you make excellent points that I wish I could share among my friends at the click of a button.
No worries if you decide not to do this, I just wanted to suggest it.
Keep up the good work.
Ben M
Hi Ben –
Thank you! There isn’t really a reason, except that I haven’t thought about it. I suppose when I came back here a year ago I was so happy to get away from all the clutter and junk there was at FTB (thank you Patreon subscribers for making this visual cleanliness possible!) that I didn’t get around to realizing I should have buttons. I probably will add them.
You could add a mobile friendly option as well.
Great!