Way OT: Military coup in Turkey
There appears to be a military coup in progress in Turkey. This is super OT, but I know there are days when I get all of my news via the MGoBoard, so I thought I'd post it. The coup attempt is frontpage news everywhere, so I'll let you choose your own sources instead of linking anything.
It'll be very interesting to see what happens. As some of you may know, President Erdogan had been fairly effectively trying to expand his power beyond the scope allowed by the Turkish constitution, while more or less waging war on Turkey's Kurdish population. For another bit of background information, Turkish F-16s shot down a Russian warplane 8 months ago, causing an international incident that could have easily had major implications for the US. (Turkey is a member of NATO, so we have treaty obligations that would be hard to ignore if Erdogan were to start a war with Russia.)
Turkey is also a key ally in the fight against ISIS, so this is worth watching for that reason alone. A step back from the direction Erdogan had been tending, including the restoration of peace with Turkish Kurds and cooperation with Syrian Kurds who have often been the most effective opponents of ISIS, would appear to be a great boon to American strategic interests. But who knows what the consequences of a military coup might be.
"That's not giong to be good for anyone"
that episode was based on a true story of a guy whose office was above a Kenny Rogers Roasters' restaurant in Manhattan.
blurb:
The reason he put a hand-lettered sign saying "Bad Food" in his second-floor window on Broadway at 71st Street, he said, was because the new fast-food restaurant below his law office had surrounded the office's window with an awning, bright lights and an illuminated sign. "They made it appear as if I was their dining room," Mr. Lichtman said in an interview yesterday. Whether it was the adornments or the food Mr. Lichtman did not like about the chicken restaurant, Justice Charles E. Ramos of State Supreme Court in Manhattan ruled on Monday that Mr. Lichtman had a First Amendment right to keep his sign where it was. "Were Lichtman to stand outside Roasters, physically approach and scream at customers that they would suffer from abdominal distention after eating Roasters' food, the balance might be tipped more favorably to Roasters," the judge wrote. "However, in this case, First Amendment rights must not be compromised merely because the plaintiff may suffer some loss of profit."
Now what were we talking about?
is no friend of the US...he is a Islamist who has allowed ISIS free passage way into Syria.
His removal would be a good thing...
could be 1000% worse.
Welp, back to the Jabrill hype video
Some are saying that it is followers of Gulen who are carrying out the coup.
I don't know much about the guy, but I have never heard anyone suggest that he'd be worse than Erdogan.
I'm not sure he was positioned to give ISIS free passageway into Syria or not. (ISIS is led by Iraqis from Saddam's old army, who didn't need to go through Turkey to get to Syria.) But otherwise this is what I meant to suggest.
I totally missed the point of that bit. Thanks for the clarification.
True, but to be fair, ISIS actually just bombed Ankara airport. Turkey may have more problems moving forward than the west because he let them in and build infrastructure. They can do alot of damage in Turkey.
We (The US) may be more pissed at his hostility towards our best ally in the region...Kurdistan (future tense) and the kurds...NOT the NATO allied Turkey.
He allowed us/was compelled to allow us to launch sorties out of Incirlik against ISIS, and Turkey has done plenty on the ground against them on their own. Their relationship to the Kurds makes things very complicated, but it is misleading to suggest that they are enabling ISIS. More that ISIS is an enemy of the Turkish Government, but so also is one of the most effective groups fighting ISIS.
It's true that Turkey was the closest thing to an ally that ISIS had until recently (the recent bombings in Turkey were probably ISIS retaliation for Turkey scaling back its support for that group under US and Russian pressure), but that had more to do with the fact that ISIS opccupied large chunks of Kurdish territory and acted as a buffer to the Kurds expanding their power. Because Turkey has been locked in a decades-long conflict with its own Kurdish minority, Erdogan didn't necessarily view the emergence of ISIS as a bad thing (the whole enemy-of-my-enemy-is-my-best-friend phenomenon). So Turkey's soft support for ISIS is pragmatic and has nothing to do with Erdogan's supposed Islamism. If anything, ideologically, ISIS probably considers Erdogan to be a heretic, but even wild-eyed terrorist barbarians are not above (or beneath?) realpolitik.
Precisely.
More journalists are imprisoned in Turkey than in China.....and we all know how China is run
...are you seeing those numbers. The Committee to Protect Journalists shows 49 imprisoned in China, and 14 in Turkey.: https://www.cpj.org/imprisoned/2015.php
Turkey, still top five tho.
Not a good thread for MGoBlog.
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
I don't think it's appropriate.
Right? That's the idea behind the no politics/no religion rule.
Big world/US events are always posted in OT season. Relax. If you can't take it, don't read it.
Be that as it may, I think the thread violates the rules.
Duly noted...
The Mealer thread was pissed all over from the start. Surprised this thread isn't considered tied to POLITICS or RELIGION!
I personally don't care, but it sure seems inconsistent to say the least.
Not saying I disagree with you at all, but it's a Friday night, so I'll give the mods the benefit of the doubt.
It is kinda ironic that the guy with the army man icon is having a problem with a discussion about a military action
That's an interesting point.
As for the thread, though, I think it probably violates the rules about political/religious stuff.
Duly noted...again
So far really no one but you has brought it there, so thanks. We don't need to lock this thread, we are fully capable of having sophisticated discussion here. Well, most of us are.
Eat more Arby's.
Screw Turkey. They butchered the Armenians and bully anyone who chooses to acknowledge those attrocities.
...Ottomans were undeniably responsible for the Armenian genocide. But that was also before the Turkish republic, which while denying their predecessors responsibility for the atrocities also happens to be our strongest ally in the Islamic world. International politics are complicated.
The Armenian Genocide technically happened under the Ottomans, but at that time the Ottoman Empire was being run by the Young Turks, a group of secular-minded military officers that seized absolute power in a 1913 coup and reduced the Ottomans to mere figureheads. The Young Turks were a precursor to the movement that established the Republic, which is why Turkey is so adamant about denying that a genocide occurred, despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary.