Author: Aylin D. Miller

Erdogan Flies to Istanbul, Declares Coup Dead, and Vows Payback
- By david.kenner
On Friday evening, Turkish military personnel blocked bridges over the Bosphorus strait in Istanbul, deployed tanks to the city’s main airport, and sent low-flying jets and helicopters to patrol over the capital of Ankara.

Updated, 9:55 p.m., EST: After urging Turkish citizens to take to the streets to turn back an attempted military coup, President Erdogan flew to Istanbul early Saturday to retake control of Turkey.

For hours on Friday evening, Turkey’s political present and future were literally in the air. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was rumored to be in his private jet seeking political asylum in Germany, or perhaps in the U.K. Turkish Army troops had taken over the country’s two biggest cities with tanks, jets, and loudspeakers. Turkey’s latest attempt at a coup d’etat since joining NATO had come, and after some flutters and shots and explosions, gone.

The scene in Turkey, a NATO ally which is imperative in the fight against the Islamic State, was triumphant as Erdogan returned. The autocrat harshest on social media had urged Turks to take to the streets to defend his regime — via Twitter. His first post-coup TV appearance came via Apple’s FaceTime.

“They are going to pay for this in the harshest way,” Erdogan said after landing. He set up shop behind a rickety wooden table in a room in Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport, named for the secular founder of the modern Turkish Republic that Erdogan has sought to dismantle, and scene of the country’s last deadly terror attack.

“There has been a movement within the Armed Forces starting this afternoon. A minority within the Armed Forces has unfortunately been unable to stomach Turkey’s unity. It was the [Gulen Movement] itself. This group has penetrated the Armed Forces and the police among other government agencies over the past 40 years. What is being perpetrated is a rebellion and treason. They will pay a heavy price for their treason to Turkey,” Erdogan said.

“Law enforcement has started arresting military officers of various ranks. Those who stain the military’s reputation must leave. The process has started today and it will continue, just as we fight other terrorist groups,” the president of Turkey said, lumping his own army together with the Islamists and Kurds that the country has battled for years and decades.

Martial law was declared in Turkey, convulsed by military takeovers at least three times in the past half-century. How Erdogan’s return will be taken remains to be seen.

Updated by David Francis

Updated, 8:00 p.m., EST: President Barack Obama has rejected the ongoing attempted military coup in Turkey, meant to depose Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

In a statement late Friday, the president called on all parties to “support the democratically elected government of Turkey.” His view on the ongoing incident was announced during a readout of a call between the White House and Secretary of State John Kerry.

“The President and Secretary agreed that all parties in Turkey should support the democratically-elected Government of Turkey, show restraint, and avoid any violence or bloodshed. The Secretary underscored that the State Department will continue to focus on the safety and security of U.S. citizens in Turkey,” the White House said in a statement.

This sentiment was echoed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Her spokesperson tweeted that Turkey’s democracy “must be respected.”

Merkel spox: “The democratic order in #Turkey must be respected. Everything must be done to protect lives.“ https://t.co/durVTLznCm

— Frank Jordans (@wirereporter) July 15, 2016

The State Department warned Americans in Turkey on Twitter to “shelter in place” and confirmed that martial law had been imposed in the country.

Meanwhile, the Associated Press reported that Turkey’s national intelligence spokesperson said the coup had been repelled.

BREAKING: Turkish national intelligence spokesman says coup attempt has been “repelled.”

— The Associated Press (@AP) July 15, 2016

As the attempted coup progressed into Saturday morning, Turkish time, the extent of the violence is becoming more clear. The Anadolu Agency, Turkey’s state-run news outlet, reported 17 police officers were killed in a helicopter attack on police special forces headquarters on the outskirts of Ankara. The agency also reported a bomb detonated outside the Turkish parliament building in the capital.

Updated by David Francis

According to high-ranking officials in the Turkish government — including Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, who spoke to Turkish television channel NTV — it was an attempted military coup against the government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has alarmed many in the country with his staunchly Islamist views. The Turkish military has traditionally seen itself as a guardian of the country’s secular heritage, and tensions between Erdogan and the Turkish armed forces have been growing for years.

A group claiming to represent the Turkish military issued a statement announcing that it had “completely taken over the administration of the country to reinstate constitutional order, human rights and freedoms, the rule of law and the general security that was damaged.”

There were conflicting reports about Erdogan’s status, with some Turkish media outlets reporting he was poised to give a statement and others reporting he had left the country on his private jet. Erdogan made a statement late on Friday night through a FaceTime call broadcast on CNN Turk where he denounced the coup attempt and vowed that the perpetrators would be punished. He urged Turkish citizens to defy a military-announced curfew, saying, “I call on our people to gather in squares and airports” to oppose the attempted government takeover.

If successful, the coup would put Washington in a bind. Erdogan was freely elected to the leadership of one of his region’s most powerful countries, and Turkey — a NATO member — has recently repaired its relationship with Israel, the closest American ally in the Middle East. Publicly endorsing a military coup would be politically challenging for a White House ostensibly committed to the expansion of democratic values abroad.

At the same time, many in the Obama administration have grown concerned about Erdogan’s increasingly authoritarian policies, which have included a broad crackdown on journalists and human rights advocates in the country. Washington has also accused Erdogan of failing to do enough to stop the flow of foreign fighters loyal to the Islamic State into Syria.

An aide to Erdogan condemned the coup in a text to Foreign Policy Friday.

“This is an attack against Turkish democracy,” the aide said. “A group within the Turkish armed forces has made an attempt to overthrow the democratically elected government outside the chain of command.”

The Turkish military also seized control of the state broadcaster TRT. In its statement, the group went on to confirm that all international agreements entered into by Turkey would still be adhered to.

CNN Turk and the semiofficial Anadolu Agency announced that Hulusi Akar, the head of Turkey’s armed forces, was currently detained at the military headquarters in Ankara. The U.S. Embassy in Ankara issued a warning to Americans, urging them to contact family and friends to let them know they are safe.

US Embassy warning on ongoing coup attempt in Turkey: https://t.co/IEWlyhFPZp—
Dion Nissenbaum (@DionNissenbaum) July 15, 2016

The timing of the coup could be related to a yearly summit that Turkey’s military holds, which determines promotions within the top ranks of the armed forces. In 2011, the entire top brass of the Turkish military resigned over anger at the arrest of senior officers who were accused of plotting a coup. The summit was supposed to be held on Aug. 1: Some observers speculated that this coup attempt could have been conducted by factions within the military who feared they would be sidelined then and moved to preempt that development.

If the Turkish military succeeds in forcing out Erdogan, the Obama administration will face a reprise of the challenges it faced in 2013, when the Egyptian military forced out and then arrested President Mohamed Morsi. In the aftermath, the White House refused to call Morsi’s ouster by what it was: a textbook definition of a coup.

“[We are] taking the time to determine what happened, what to label it,” then-White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters at the time.

“We’re just not taking a position,” said State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki at the time, adding that “each circumstance is different.”

Psaki, using words that would later be echoed by other senior administration officials said, said “there were millions of people who have expressed legitimate grievances” against Morsi, a committed Islamist. “A democratic process is not just about casting your ballots.… There are other factors including how somebody behaves or how they govern.”

In the case of Morsi, the fate of $1.5 billion in annual U.S. aid to Egypt was hanging in the balance as Washington weighed how to describe his ouster. If the White House had labeled it a coup, Washington would have had to suspend the funds. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry ultimately chose to praise the Egyptian military for “restoring democracy” in the country. The United States now recognizes Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the man who led the coup, as Egypt’s president.

Below, FP has embedded footage from the ground in Turkey:

A military tank on the street in Istanbul #Turkey during the #TurkishCoup. pic.twitter.com/YjgUR2lEeb

— Mr Red Ghost (@Mr_Ghostly) July 15, 2016

Boğaziçi Köprüsü’nde asker ve askeri araçların bulunduğu görülüyor. pic.twitter.com/9TFVP7z3Rh

— 140journos (@140journos) July 15, 2016

Unverified image of helicopter opening fire #Turkey pic.twitter.com/d9GiDxisWy

— Michael Horowitz (@michaelh992) July 15, 2016

Bir TSK mensubu: “Tatbikat değil. Herkes evine gitsin.” @parya12342 pic.twitter.com/SpaFodRM7g

— 140journos (@140journos) July 15, 2016

Foreign Policy staff writer Siobhán O’Grady and fellow Henry Johnson contributed to this report.

Photo credit: YASIN AKGUL/AFP/Getty Images
July 16, 2016
Recep Tayyip Erdogan uses Turkey military coup buzz to expand powers, curb dissent

Recep Tayyip Erdogan uses Turkey military coup buzz to expand powers, curb dissent

Turkey’s military leaders, in the face of rising speculation at home and abroad, took the extraordinary step last week of denying plans for a coup. But with domestic turmoil, a rising terrorist threat, chaos in the region and a history of military interventions in Ankara, the denials haven’t quieted buzz from Washington. Turkish generals have intervened… (more…)

July 16, 2016
EU source says Turkey coup bid looks substantial, ‘not just a few colonels’

EU source says Turkey coup bid looks substantial, ‘not just a few colonels’

A coup attempt in Turkey involves a substantial part of the military and “not just a few colonels”, a European Union source monitoring events in the EU candidate country said on Friday.

“It looks like a relatively well orchestrated coup by a substantial body of the military, not just a few colonels,” the source told Reuters.

“They’ve got control of the airports and are expecting control over the TV station imminently,” the source said, shortly before state television TRT broadcast a military declaration of martial law.

“They control several strategic points in Istanbul. Given the scale of the operation, it is difficult to imagine they will stop short of prevailing,” the source said.

Another European diplomat said he was attending a dinner with the Turkish ambassador in a European capital when they were interrupted by messages on their mobile phones.

“This is clearly not some tinpot little coup. The Turkish ambassador was clearly shocked and is taking it very seriously,” the diplomat told Reuters as the dinner party broke up.

(Reporting by Paul Taylor and Alastair Macdonald; Writing by Paul Taylor)

July 15, 2016
French Mayor Says ‘No More Muslims’,

Orders The Destruction Of The Infamous Calais Camps And Expulsion Of Over Seven Thousand Muslims

It is about time.

We have reported here extensive on Shoebat.com about the “Calais jungle”- the once popular French tourist town turned into a third-world Muslim hell on earth where violence is rampant, rapes are random, and non-Muslims are hated with a passion. Calais is not just a “black spot” on Europe, but many Europeans look at is as the face of Europe’s future if Islam takes over.

It has taken a long time, but the French are finally pushing back against the Muslims in Calais. So much is the pushback that the mayor of Calais has promised to destroy a large part of the camp and displace thousands of Muslims in the process:

Thousands of refugees living in the so-called Calais ‘Jungle’ will soon lose their makeshift homes as the northern half of the camp is set to be demolished.

Calais mayor Natacha Bouchart told journalists on Monday that the remaining half of the camp would soon be dismantled, though no date has yet been given.

“We can’t wait any longer, we need to know as soon as possible when and how the Jungle will be torn down,” she said.

“It is absolutely urgent for this town, its people and its businesses.”

According to Reuters, the Calais prefecture, which would issue the order to demolish the camp, declined to comment on the matter yesterday

I say good for Calais and the French. It is about time they started standing up for themselves. As we have shown, these Muslims want nothing to do with European society except to rob it of all the good it has, destroy the west, and then blame the people who invited them in for the problems which they created.

Islam has no place in Europe. It never did, and it is about time Europe started sending these people back to the lands where they came from.

*Article by Andrew Bieszad

July 15, 2016
SHORT VERSION Black conservative leaders discuss how the NRA was created to protect freed slaves – YouTube

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[FULL VERSION] Black conservative leaders discuss how the NRA was created to protect freed slaves – YouTube

July 14, 2016
The Guardian: “Now the truth emerges: how the US fuelled the rise of Isis in Syria and Iraq

www.theguardian.com Seumas Milne

Islamic State Opinion .. The sectarian terror group won’t be defeated by the western states that incubated it in the first place

lustration by Eva Bee

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The war on terror, that campaign without end launched 14 years ago by George Bush, is tying itself up in ever more grotesque contortions. On Monday the trial in London of a Swedish man, Bherlin Gildo, accused of terrorism in Syria, collapsed after it became clear British intelligence had been arming the same rebel groups the defendant was charged with supporting.

The prosecution abandoned the case, apparently to avoid embarrassing the intelligence services. The defence argued that going ahead with the trial would have been an “affront to justice” when there was plenty of evidence the British state was itself providing “extensive support” to the armed Syrian opposition.

That didn’t only include the “non-lethal assistance” boasted of by the government (including body armour and military vehicles), but training, logistical support and the secret supply of “arms on a massive scale”. Reports were cited that MI6 had cooperated with the CIA on a “rat line” of arms transfers from Libyan stockpiles to the Syrian rebels in 2012 after the fall of the Gaddafi regime.

Clearly, the absurdity of sending someone to prison for doing what ministers and their security officials were up to themselves became too much. But it’s only the latest of a string of such cases. Less fortunate was a London cab driver Anis Sardar, who was given a life sentence a fortnight earlier for taking part in 2007 in resistance to the occupation of Iraq by US and British forces. Armed opposition to illegal invasion and occupation clearly doesn’t constitute terrorism or murder on most definitions, including the Geneva convention.

But terrorism is now squarely in the eye of the beholder. And nowhere is that more so than in the Middle East, where today’s terrorists are tomorrow’s fighters against tyranny – and allies are enemies – often at the bewildering whim of a western policymaker’s conference call.

, US, British and other western forces have been back in Iraq, supposedly in the cause of destroying the hyper-sectarian terror group Islamic State (formerly known as al-Qaida in Iraq). This was after Isis overran huge chunks of Iraqi and Syrian territory and proclaimed a self-styled Islamic caliphate.

The campaign isn’t going well. Last month, Isis rolled into the Iraqi city of Ramadi, while on the other side of the now nonexistent border its forces conquered the Syrian town of Palmyra. Al-Qaida’s official franchise, the Nusra Front, has also been making gains in Syria.

Some Iraqis complain that the US sat on its hands while all this was going on. The Americans insist they are trying to avoid civilian casualties, and claim significant successes. Privately, officials say they don’t want to be seen hammering Sunni strongholds in a sectarian war and risk upsetting their Sunni allies in the Gulf.

A revealing light on how we got here has now been shone by a recently declassified secret US intelligence report, written in August 2012, which uncannily predicts – and effectively welcomes – the prospect of a “Salafist principality” in eastern Syria and an al-Qaida-controlled Islamic state in Syria and Iraq. In stark contrast to western claims at the time, the Defense Intelligence Agency document identifies al-Qaida in Iraq (which became Isis) and fellow Salafists as the “major forces driving the insurgency in Syria” – and states that “western countries, the Gulf states and Turkey” were supporting the opposition’s efforts to take control of eastern Syria.

Raising the “possibility of establishing a declared or undeclared Salafist principality”, the Pentagon report goes on, “this is exactly what the supporting powers to the opposition want, in order to isolate the Syrian regime, which is considered the strategic depth of the Shia expansion (Iraq and Iran)”.

American forces bomb one set of rebels while backing another in Syria

Which is pretty well exactly what happened two years later. The report isn’t a policy document. It’s heavily redacted and there are ambiguities in the language. But the implications are clear enough. A year into the Syrian rebellion, the US and its allies weren’t only supporting and arming an opposition they knew to be dominated by extreme sectarian groups; they were prepared to countenance the creation of some sort of “Islamic state” – despite the “grave danger” to Iraq’s unity – as a Sunni buffer to weaken Syria.

That doesn’t mean the US created Isis, of course, though some of its Gulf allies certainly played a role in it – as the US vice-president, Joe Biden, acknowledged last year. But there was no al-Qaida in Iraq until the US and Britain invaded. And the US has certainly exploited the existence of Isis against other forces in the region as part of a wider drive to maintain western control.

The calculus changed when Isis started beheading westerners and posting atrocities online, and the Gulf states are now backing other groups in the Syrian war, such as the Nusra Front. But this US and western habit of playing with jihadi groups, which then come back to bite them, goes back at least to the 1980s war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, which fostered the original al-Qaida under CIA tutelage.

It was recalibrated during the occupation of Iraq, when US forces led by General Petraeus sponsored an El Salvador-style dirty war of sectarian death squads to weaken the Iraqi resistance. And it was reprised in 2011 in the Nato-orchestrated war in Libya, where Isis last week took control of Gaddafi’s home town of Sirte.

In reality, US and western policy in the conflagration that is now the Middle East is in the classic mould of imperial divide-and-rule. American forces bomb one set of rebels while backing another in Syria, and mount what are effectively joint military operations with Iran against Isis in Iraq while supporting Saudi Arabia’s military campaign against Iranian-backed Houthi forces in Yemen. However confused US policy may often be, a weak, partitioned Iraq and Syria fit such an approach perfectly.

What’s clear is that Isis and its monstrosities won’t be defeated by the same powers that brought it to Iraq and Syria in the first place, or whose open and covert war-making has fostered it in the years since. Endless western military interventions in the Middle East have brought only destruction and division. It’s the people of the region who can cure this disease – not those who incubated the virus.

July 12, 2016