Turkish dictatorship!

Well, it's by far not the first coup by the Turkish military in the past few decades, and to my knowledge, Turkey didn't fare so bad with these in the past. So I am optimistic that a temporary military leadership will be better than Erdogan. Certainly not less democratic.

Also, there are media reports that Erdogan wants to apply for asylum in Germany. WHAT THE FUCK...
 
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I'm sure B?hmermann would have a free room for him :lol:
 
If I was a military commander I'd want reinforcements at that bridge I'm sure most of us are watching, the two trucks and the handful of soldiers there does seem a bit thin to hold it. Although I think I saw a tank join them.
 
I have been waiting for this for at least a year by now. I guess the military, knowing their position being not as strong as it was earlier, waited for the right moment: Brexit, attack in Nice, Trump, everyone who might have a stake in keeping Erdogan in power has other things to do.

And while I would have thought his really embarrassing statement to the public - having to use FaceTime, adressing through an iPhone being held into the camera - would have killed Erdogan of for sure, no matter how this night ends, enough morons seem to have followed his call to oppose the coup on the streets that the military has opened fire on civilians. This is turning nasty :(
 
He does have a thin majority after all. It's not like *nobody* voted for him. Sadly there are enough people that want to believe in him and the old fashioned ways he represents.
 
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To his supporters, using FaceTime may simply confirm that the man can still get his message across via live video even when there's a coup (attempt) going on.
 
Heh so instead of having a red phone like say, Nixon, now we have Facetime...
 
It actually says in the turkish constitution that the military have a duty to overthrow the government if it doesn't comply with the constitution.
The constitution was instituted by Mustafa Kemal Atat?rk, who was the first president of Turkey, and he made this point to ensure Turkey would stay a secular state.
The way Erdogan has been doing business, it is no wonder the military finally acted.
 
Hmm, I've been watching this for a few hours and as a new supporter of military coups it feels like it's going the wrong way currently, granted the media in Turkey are government controlled and hence pictures coming out support their narrative, but I think they may have launched the coup too early. Surely it'd would have been better to launch it at night instead of 21.30. Get people by surprise, reduce the number of civvies out and about disrupting your overthrowing efforts. Also seem not all army commanders are on board, so not enough soldiers on the streets.

And they didn't seem to be able to secure the Erdogan, that objective should have been achieved early in the game to ensure success. Looks like military may have to withdraw, which would be a shame. Will be interesting to see the final outcome tomorrow.

Wonders if anyone has written a book on how to overthrow your government...

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Reddit says the man who likes goats is on this plane about to land at Ataturk
 
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Looks like Erdogan won, Turkey's new God Emperor.
 
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If Erdogan wins this, his paranoia will probably shoot a mile high and we will see Turkey turn into a fully-fledged dictatorship soon. I expect some more cleansing of critics and people mysteriously disappearing without a trial and stuff like that.
 
If Erdogan wins this, his paranoia will probably shoot a mile high and we will see Turkey turn into a fully-fledged dictatorship soon. I expect some more cleansing of critics and people mysteriously disappearing without a trial and stuff like that.

QFT. Currently looks exactly like this is happening now... he'll go all sorts of insane, I bet. But he's a "valuable partner" and all, so the EU etc. won't care all that much.
 
on the other hand this would have been worth nothing in such an undemocratic matter ...

I find that notion odd. Yes, Erdogan won the last election... after systematically silencing the opposition and dissenting voices in the media. So the democratic legitimacy of his government seems dubious, at best.

Anyways, as a laiman it seems that the coup attempt was not particularly well thought out - the time it began, the fact that they didn't start with arresting Erdogan and shutting down the media, etc.
I can see a few reasons why it might have gone that way. Either they were naive and genuinely thought their plan would be sufficient, or they knew they were in a suboptimal position but still decided to go ahead, e.g. because they thought their position would only become worse going forward. But I also wouldn't be surprised if Erdogan used his intelligence apparatus to identify the dissenting elements within the military, and goaded them into action. I know, sounds like a conspiracy theory, but he is looking to profit from this immensely. Support both nationally and internationally surged, and he will have carte blanche to weed out any remaining dissenting elements within the military now, something he's already started doing in the past. After all, nobody will challenge him on that in the wake of a coup attempt.
Because of that, this was likely the only chance for the military to challenge Erdogan's rule. Erdogan will have known this too, and even after his past efforts to get the military on his side, he must have known that a military coup was still a real possibility. So I don't think it's very far fetched that he would try and provoke such a coup attempt in a situation where he has the advantage. Which on the surface of it, seems to be pretty much what has happened.
 
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