Tag: 15 Temmuz

  • Leaked document sheds light on Turkey’s controlled ‘coup’

    Leaked document sheds light on Turkey’s controlled ‘coup’

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    Some of the events of 16 July seem to have been forecast in the official document before they happened – or never happened at all (Photo: Reuters)

    The failed coup in Turkey in 2016 transformed its internal politics and EU relations.

    But two and half years later, evidence is trickling out to support what the EU initially suspected – that president Recep Tayyip Erdogan knew what was going to happen and let it go ahead as a pretext to create one-man rule.

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      Some 110 journalists in jail as crackdown continues (Photo: Reuters)

    The new evidence recently came in the form of a document written by a Turkish prosecutor on 16 July 2016, and obtained by an investigative journalist, Ahmet Donmez, who lives in exile in Sweden.

    The document is a detailed record of events which took place between the start of the coup and 5AM and 7AM that morning.

    It said that putschists in the Turkish air force had bombed the parliament and the garden of the presidential palace, for instance.

    They did so. But oddly enough, the prosecutor who minuted the events, Serdar Coskun, dated his record as having been written at 1AM – four hours before it all happened.

    Coskun at first kept silent about the revelation.

    He then gave an interview to a pro-government journalist in which he confirmed the authenticity of the document, but in which he also said he had made a mistake on the timing.

    He had started writing at 1AM, he said, but finished at 7AM and indicated that he forgot to change the time.

    Coskun’s explanation lacked credibility because some of the things he minuted as having just taken place never did take place, however.

    The non-events he recorded included a siege of the MIT (the national intelligence service), the bombing of the special forces command HQ, and the bombing of the police intelligence bureau.

    The Turkish embassy to the EU in Brussels declined to comment when asked by EUobserver.

    But for one Turkey expert, the minutes indicate that Erdogan’s people knew exactly what was going to happen, let some of the events unfold in a controlled way as a pretext for the ensuing crackdown, and even began drafting papers beforehand that they would later use in trials against his political opponents.

    “Finally, we now know how Erdogan exploited the so-called coup so quickly and ruthlessly … my suspicions are even more aroused,” Andrew Duff, a British former MEP who now works at the European Policy Centre, a think-tank in Brussels, told this website.

    Recalling the events of July 2016, Duff said that even back then the coup appeared to contain bogus incidents.

    “From watching on TV and social media the events of that night, I was suspicious that all was not as it seemed. I couldn’t understand, for example, how the seizure of the Bosporus bridges by the armed forces could fit into the pattern of a genuine coup d’etat,” he said.

    The fact that Erdogan himself was not captured or harmed also looked odd, Duff added.

    “In a proper coup, he [Erdogan] would have been the main and possibly only target of the plotters,” he said.

    “On speaking to several very well informed sources after the event, I am more than ever puzzled why the coup – if it was a proper coup – failed. The Turkish military have never failed in a coup before…why would they do so now?,” Duff asked.

    Wider suspicion

    He is not alone in his suspicions.

    The leader of Turkey’s main opposition party, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), Kemal Kilicdaroglu, has called the failed putsch “a controlled coup”.

    The former president of the European Parliament, German politician Martin Schulz, has said that while the preparations for the coup looked amateurish, the measures taken against it were extremely professional.

    The EU foreign service’s intelligence branch, IntCen, which compiles information from EU states’ spy services, also echoed the politicians.

    Erdogan blamed the coup on Fethullah Gulen, the head of a religious movement who lives in exile in the US and who is one of his main political opponents.

    But the IntCen report on the coup, dated 24 August 2016, and seen by this website, said it was “unlikely that Gulen had the abilities and the capacities to take such steps”, even if some individual Gulenists were involved in the attempted overthrow.

    “According to available information, a far-reaching purge of the GM’s [Gulen movement’s] followers in the armed forces and the gendarmerie was planned for early August 2016 based on lists produced by the MIT. Some arrests were already planned for 16 July, the day after the coup attempt”, the EU report added.

    “The coup was just the catalyst for the crackdown prepared in advance,” the IntCen report said.

    Much has happened since Coskun drafted his fateful minutes back at 1AM on 16 July 2016.

    Erdogan has detained over 70,000 people, including opposition MPs, 110 journalists, and human rights defenders.

    He has sacked 150,000 public officials and shut down all government-critical media.

    He also rammed through constitutional changes under a post-coup state of emergency that gave himself new powers amounting to one-man rule.

    Archeology?

    Drilling into the events of 16 July and into Coskun’s minutes might seem like political archeology two and half years down the line.

    But those events transformed Turkey in ways which continue to shape its foreign relations and the lives of Turkish people to this day.

    The idea that Turkey might one day join the EU has evaporated no matter how much it helps Europe to control flows of refugees.

    Erdogan’s decision, last weekend, to expel three German journalists, shows that his contempt for Europe has continued to deepen.

    “The Turkish government managed to more or less silence the national media, and they are now trying to do it with the international media,” Joerg Brase, the head of German broadcaster ZDF’s Istanbul bureau, who was given 10 days to leave the country, said.

    “It cannot be ruled out … that the Turkish government will take further action against representatives of German media and civil society organisations,” the German foreign ministry added in an update to its Turkey travel advice.

    “Statements, which are covered by the German legal understanding of the freedom of expression, can lead in Turkey to … criminal proceedings,” it also said.

    Meanwhile, Coskun has been promoted to become a member of one of Turkey’ highest courts, the court of cassation.

    At the same time, many military officers are behind bars on the basis of trials which referenced his strange minutes in official court records.

    Fake history

    Erdogan has also instituted 15 July as a national holiday, called the Democracy and National Unity Day of Turkey, in commemoration of the national resistance against the coup.

    But documents such as Coskun’s minutes help suggest that holiday is a gross falsification of Turkish history.

    “Deploying the coup as a pretext, Erdogan … rammed through his own version of a constitutional coup d’etat to aggrandise and protect himself, to weaken the armed forces and to silence or force into exile Turkey’s intelligentsia,” Duff said

  • Erdogan Flies to Istanbul, Declares Coup Dead, and Vows Payback

    Erdogan Flies to Istanbul, Declares Coup Dead, and Vows Payback

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    • By david.kennerimage002 21

    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