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My Turkish friends speak of a coup d'etat possibly going on right now.

Electricity went off in Istanbul for 15 minutes half an hour ago, the birdges of Istanbul have been closed by Millitary, Ankara (Capital) has been shut down, attack helicopters flew low altitude in capital and fired guns people say, hospitals are now full of soldiers guarding them, Fighter jets flying at low altitude over Istanbul

Possible coup d'etat, probably haven't been told to Foreign news yet.

Fighter jets over Istanbul, curfew, bridges closed off, army in Istanbul and Ankara, even rumors of the police being disarmed - chances are it's a coup in Turkey tonight.

So yeh, tomorrow army might cut off Internet of whole Turkey and not make it reachable (except Millitary staff ofc) until coup d'etat is over, so yeah.. see yah boys

Posting more info as it becomes revealed.

Apparently for a time it was seen as a coup, but now the PM has come out and said it isn't.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-36809083

Turkey's PM has denounced an "illegal action" by a military "group", with bridges closed in Istanbul and aircraft flying low over the capital, Ankara.
Binali Yildirim said the military action was not authorised but it was not a coup. He said that the government remained in charge.
Traffic has been stopped from crossing both the Bosphorus and Fatih Sultan Mehmet bridges in Istanbul.
There are also reports of gunshots in the capital Ankara.

Considering there is a quote of the PM saying it was a coup before this, I don't think we'll know much for a bit.

I would welcome return to status quo when the military was keeping the government secular over there

Damn that looks like one.

https://twitter.com/pzf/status/754050017774690308

"BREAKING NEWS: TURKISH ARMY ANNOUNCES IT HAS TAKEN OVER THE ENTIRE AUTHORITY IN ENTIRE TURKEY. GOVERNMENT DENIES."

On the one hand, I really want Erdogan to go. On the other hand, Hollywood tells me coups are bad and are inevitable part of an evil scheme to destroy the world (and only a British spy can save us!)

Yeah, something pretty big is going on over there. Times like this I miss my last assignment. Had my ear to the pulse of everything.

The Turkish military has traditionally been secular. Very secular. It looks like they've finally had enough of Erdogan. Good...good...

Oh feth, that's not good.

 AlmightyWalrus wrote:
Oh feth, that's not good.

Maybe it is?


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Turkish military claims to have overthrown Erdogan and taken control of country
In a statement, the Turkish military says the rule of law must remain the priority.

State TV TRT reportedly off the air.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/15/turkey-low-flying-jets-and-gunfire-heard-in-ankara1/

On one hand, getting rid of Erdogan is good.

On the other hand, I would not trust military conspirators further than I can throw them!

Erdogan is a massive witch.

If this happens, and the new regime is worse, I'd be impressed that they managed that.

 Ashiraya wrote:
On one hand, getting rid of Erdogan is good.

On the other hand, I would not trust military conspirators further than I can throw them!

Turkish military is a lot like the Egyptian military. In these terms, I'd trust them a lot more then the actual government.

Maybe they looked at Egypt and thought lets do that.

 AlmightyWalrus wrote:
Oh feth, that's not good.

Not necessarily as bad as you might think. The Turkish Army, like the Egyptian Army, has general viewed itself as an independent branch of government in service to the best interests of the state. They view themselves as the people's army, not the government's. It's something that's part of their military culture and they take great pride in it. The current Turkish government hasn't been very popular in Turkey. Especially with all the tensions in Syria, with the Kurds, ISIS, and Erdogan's saber rattling/friendliness with religious groups. Of course for all I know this is just part of the military and Erdogan is the one taking over? I'm not really an expert on the internal politics of the Turkish Army.

Could be bad. Times in Turkey are tense. This could see an even more radical regime put into place (though probably not of a religious variety). It could see a rewind of the past 20 years of Turkish politics, which have not been positive.

 MrDwhitey wrote:
Erdogan is a massive witch.

If this happens, and the new regime is worse, I'd be impressed that they managed that.

It's not hard. Turkey isn't the nicest place, but there are far, far worse.

Well, if it is a coup, I only hope it's relatively bloodless - though if Erdogan buys it, I won't be shedding many tears. The idea of a prolonged, bloody civil war in Turkey is not a pleasant one.

Dorian Jones a British journalist based in Istanbul said:

“Tanks are seen in the streets. There are reports of clashes between the police and the army,” he told Sky News, adding there were also reports that police guarding the presidential palace had been disarmed.

“I have been speaking to various friends across the city, some are reporting that they are hearing gunfire in the streets.”

If the Palace police have been disarmed, would seem to lend credence to the claim that Erdogan is out of power at this point in time.

 LordofHats wrote:

 AlmightyWalrus wrote:
Oh feth, that's not good.

Not necessarily as bad as you might think. The Turkish Army, like the Egyptian Army, has general viewed itself as an independent branch of government in service to the best interests of the state. They view themselves as the people's army, not the government's. It's something that's part of their military culture and they take great pride in it. The current Turkish government hasn't been very popular in Turkey. Especially with all the tensions in Syria, with the Kurds, ISIS, and Erdogan's saber rattling/friendliness with religious groups. Of course for all I know this is just part of the military and Erdogan is the one taking over? I'm not really an expert on the internal politics of the Turkish Army.

Could be bad. Times in Turkey are tense. This could see an even more radical regime put into place (though probably not of a religious variety). It could see a rewind of the past 20 years of Turkish politics, which have not been positive.

I know the military in Turkey is genereally more secular than Erdogan & company, but it's not like more instability in the region is what was needed right now. A civil war breaking out in Turkey would be completely god-awful on so many levels.

Wo.

Curfew in Turkey. Military is disarming police. Tanks in the capital F16 flying overhead @JaredWyand @Uncle_Jimbo https://t.co/Qu6k3i8v4a

— Kaldor Draigo (@Nacht_krapp) July 15, 2016

Wonder how the US is going to respond to this possible "do over" in Turkey.

 Jihadin wrote:
Wonder how the US is going to respond to this possible "do over" in Turkey.

My guess? Some stern words, then nothing.


Reports that the military Chief of Staff has been taken into custody, haven't heard by whom, I'm guessing the military.

Okay. This is huge.
On one hand, if it gets rid of Erdogan, that will be good. But on the other hand, more instability in the region is exactly what we don't need...
Best we can hope for I think is that the coup succeeds and that the military will set Turkey back on the secular, liberal course of Ataturk and then hand over power to civilian authorities again. If the coup fails, Erdogan's wrath will be terrible, his retribution swift.

It appears the military is detaining people:

Too be far, the Turks and the Ottomans before them have a long history of getting rid of their leaders. The Jannisarys basically acted like the old Praetorian Guard.

 AlmightyWalrus wrote:
I know the military in Turkey is genereally more secular than Erdogan & company, but it's not like more instability in the region is what was needed right now. A civil war breaking out in Turkey would be completely god-awful on so many levels.

Civil Wars get messy when the Army splits sides. An Army that's all on one side isn't much of a civil war, especially not if that Army is staging a coup in response to popular demand. We don't have much information, so this is all just conjecture, but this could turn out better for the region. A new Turkish government might back off it's hostility towards Assad, which would be a huge boon towards getting a multinational coalition going. They might also start dealing with some very harsh realities of Turkey, namely racism and exclusion that keeps Kurds outsiders in Turkey, and that isolates Turkey from Europe (Armenian genocide denial).

We just don't know yet. This could end up making things better.

Reports of a hostage (taken by the coupmakers) in the army HQ in Istanbul, presumably the Chief of Staff djones just mentioned.

 LordofHats wrote:

 AlmightyWalrus wrote:
I know the military in Turkey is genereally more secular than Erdogan & company, but it's not like more instability in the region is what was needed right now. A civil war breaking out in Turkey would be completely god-awful on so many levels.

Civil Wars get messy when the Army splits sides. An Army that's all on one side isn't much of a civil war, especially not if that Army is staging a coup in response to popular demand. We don't have much information, so this is all just conjecture, but this could turn out better for the region. A new Turkish government might back off it's hostility towards Assad, which would be a huge boon towards getting a multinational coalition going. They might also start dealing with some very harsh realities of Turkey, namely racism and exclusion that keeps Kurds outsiders in Turkey, and that isolates Turkey from Europe (Armenian genocide denial).

We just don't know yet. This could end up making things better.

Sure, it could. It could also spiral out of control completely. Think the refugee crisis in Europe is bad now?

I can see the Kurds using this one way or another. This isn't good.

 welshhoppo wrote:
Too be far, the Turks and the Ottomans before them have a long history of getting rid of their leaders. The Jannisarys basically acted like the old Praetorian Guard.

Up until they got usurped anyway

Erdogan is "safe".

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/15/turkey-low-flying-jets-and-gunfire-heard-in-ankara1/

 djones520 wrote:
Erdogan is "safe".

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/15/turkey-low-flying-jets-and-gunfire-heard-in-ankara1/

Ah darn.