FTAC – Post-Soviet Medievalism – Amplification of Narcissistic Political Passion

29 Friday Jul 2016

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, American Domestic Affairs, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Islamic Small Wars, Politics, Syndicate Red Brown Green

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Remember the order of events:

Erdogan refuses apology to Putin over the downing of a Russian jet (November 2015)

Erdogan apologizes to Putin over the same (June 27, 2016)

Turkish coup-countercoup (July 15, 2016)

Revival of Turkish Stream gas project with Russia (July 27, 2016)

Erdogan’s reinstallation of compete autocratic control (now)

July 28, 2016 — http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/29/world/europe/turkey-military-coup.html

Go back in time a little bit: http://www.newsweek.com/us-accuses-assad-aiding-islamic-state-through-airstrikes-338582 The article gets at Assad’s method of incubating ISIS (let it grow!).

Keep in mind the appearance of strident “Red Brown Green” — old comrade networks, new nationalists, Islamists — politics in the open democracies of the west.

In Hungary, Orban developed and promoted law favoring his own authoritarian rule; in Turkey, a similar thing but along Islamist lines.

Putin knows that the Christian-majority states of Europe, once goaded by terrorism, would have a chance of reverting to nationalism (and its fevers) to fight it. Possibly, for that reason, western leaders have chosen to absorb the spill-off from terrorism rather than relent with regard to the political theater produced by Russia and Russo-Iranian cooperation.

What that world looks like may be on display in Syria.

Do you want to live in a medieval world with modern weapons?

Islam has to emphasize pluralism, update, and reform — but not everyone wants it to do that, including some of its familiar enemies.

Also keep in mind that Moscow refuses to designate either Hezbollah or Hamas as terrorist organizations.

The questions are much easier to ask than to answer.

How did the Democratic Party become so infected with an (anti-Semitic) “Red-Green” contingent?

How did the American campus and other intellectual assets become so infiltrated by ideologues professing the same thoughts to young students with their minds wide open?

How did that Turkish autocrat, the president of a once stable NATO state reverse course and revert so abruptly backward to theological proto-fascism, destroying an army, building a police element devoted to his social ordering, and moving the mob to destroy at least one bookstore (one may expect more to come from those forces as they lose their containment and inhibition)?

Is there a “Silent Majority” today that hates to see the nation so divided along lines laid in during the 1960s and 1970s?

Where is that majority today?

American will learn part of the answer to that in November.

Given the “social contract” involved in the creating and sustaining of the world’s democracies, how powerful is money in the hands of the world’s business and political elites?

As “ships of state”, the democratic open societies of the west have sailed along in comparative peace and prosperity for many years, inspiring the want of democracy — fair and free elections, meaningful laws, justice systems infused with integrity — and now each faces the decision of being dragged back into the political snakepit of the medieval world.

How do Russians feel about the transformation of the post-Soviet environment into the “vertical of power” state?

How do Americans feel today about their education in American civics, geography, and history?  How are they feeling now about developing for themselves — in each household — a substantial grasp involving foreign affairs, international relations, and world history?

So many questions!

Regarding Putin’s imperial and medieval revanche, there should be no question that it has assaulted NATO not with tanks but with sufficient disinformation, agitation, and propaganda to encourage “fascism on the left” in the Democratic Party and resurgent nationalism (of an unknown character) in the Republican Party.

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FTAC – “Peace Prevails When . . . .” – On the Middle East Conflict

28 Thursday Jul 2016

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Anti-Semitism, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Gaza Suzerain, Islamic Small Wars, Israel, Middle East, Palestinia, Politics

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Peace prevails when some lies are acknowledged and brought to a standstill. Without apprehension of the Soviet Era, historic Russian anti-Semitism (which the Soviet would go on to heavily promote in the middle east), and the KGB invention of Arafat followed by the spinning up of so many “alternative narratives”, indeed that poison will not subside for a while — but the Soviet has been gone 25 years, Moscow-Tehran aren’t looking very good in Syria, and Hamas and Hezbollah, both endorsed by the same “couple”, may be reaching the end of their argument with only corruption, kleptocracy, and death to show for it. They’re going to be “found out” by those they boasted of protecting, and that will the end of the middle east conflict.

What is yesterday still doing here?

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FTAC – More Moscow Misrules – The Natural Response to Islamic Terrorism – Revived Nationalism

28 Thursday Jul 2016

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Islamic Small Wars, Political Psychology, Syndicate Red Brown Green

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Moscow — post-Soviet, neo-feudal, neo-imperial — has invested its politics in a medieval view of the world with commensurate criminality and authoritarian state leadership. Some have in eastern Europe referred to Putin as “Putler”. Notably, Moscow will not designate either Hezbollah or Hamas as terrorists organizations to this day. In the Syrian theater, I believe ISIS was incubated deliberately to assault, bribe, and goad the west while also serving now and then for “target practice” using Russia’s latest war fighting technology.

In Turkey, Erdogan refuse to apologize to Putin for the downing of an aggressive Russian jet, but a few weeks ago, he turned around, issued his apology, then conducted a countercoup against a coup I believe he helped draw into action, and, not least, he has reengaged Moscow over a powerful energy project, “Turkish Stream”.

Using terrorism as a tool, and doing so by indirect manipulation — e.g., if one knows what ISIS wants to do, why not let it have its way and take advantage of its program? — Putin, no less than ISIS and others, has pushed the liberal democracies toward authoritarian nationalism, the natural reaction to assault by an alien force. Our problem is that while we have been focused on Islam or “islamist Islam” another monster — sometimes I call it the “Phantom of the Soviet” — has gotten to its feet.

Inspiration for the post:

Posted to YouTube 7/15/2016.

Continuation

I often feel I could do with a roundtable of Islamic and Russian Studies experts, conservative side, of course, to has the data and the conclusions I’ve drawn. Indeed, Putin knows that in the face of perceived (!) assaults from Islam, the traditional patriots of nations must rise to meet that threat. What he hides — or perhaps not so much as I write about it — is the effect that has on global politics as regards reinstalling a medieval and divisive mentality in modern states.

I do not wish to be at war with Muslim who have no desire to be at war with me. Most who are modern have now to demonize and repudiate al-Qaeda, Baghdadi, Hezbollah, Hamas and others as belonging to another and long gone age, and they have to find there way into a future that is not their past.

In place of that barbarism? — all those good RFE/RL values: classical liberalism for individuals; democracies that work; and fairness, responsiveness, and responsibility through all the mechanisms of government.

Putin has kept the architecture of the Soviet in place but changed its meaning (very Orwellian, that), but the end remains what is was for the Party: absolute power.

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Dems? Asses Lead the Masses; GOP? Great White Elephant – A Note on Political Extremism and Moscow in America’s Latest Election Cycle

27 Wednesday Jul 2016

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, American Domestic Affairs, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Politics, United States of America

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Americans have seen the American and Israeli flags burned outside of the Democratic National Convention.

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-07-27/american-flags-burn-outside-dnc-after-anti-hillary-march

http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/72734/sanders-supporters-burn-israeli-flag-at-democratic-convention-watch/#oFPRGB3t4xlg2K4g.97 – 7/27/2016

Americans also have seen a stink raised about potentially high value State Department e-mail allegedly mishandled by candidate Clinton — and they have witnessed Trump spin the same story into an attack perhaps facetiously wishing that Moscow would recover the cache, despite the possibility of the same containing state secrets — and the opposition has picked up on that to throw the mud pie right back at him.

Into that mess comes this comes this header from the “lesser media”: “Trump & Putin.  Yes, It’s Really a Thing” (Talking Points Memo, July 25, 2016).  At the top, editor and writer Josh Marshall remarks, “My weekend post on Russia, Vladimir Putin, and Trump . . . has been one of if not the most read pieces I’ve ever written for TPM.”

Marshall’s observations synch in one respect with BackChannels note on the Trump-Manafort connection.

Related: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/07/27/the-trump-russia-money-question-in-24-steps/

Whatever the truth may be as regards either Clinton or Trump, the domestic atmosphere for elections has been poisoned by the polarized and strident politics enabled and perhaps encouraged in both camps.  For the presence of “Red-Green” — old comrades in the “Solidarity Mode” — see, for example —

http://www.blackforpalestine.com/

I post the URL because I like its unmistakable Red-Green branding in relation to that movement within the Democratic Party that has been developing for many years, and this year appears as part of a hate-America-first crowd that has been burning flags.

As regards the GOP, it’s doubtful that Trump would take office as what this blog refers to as a “New Nationalist” (in the manner of Orban in Hungary and Erdogan in Turkey).  However, with the employment of Paul Manafort and an uncertain relationship with Putin, the idea that a Trump Administration might react to domestic and foreign affairs with an authoritarian hand also appears to worry Americans.

Add in the leading foreign affairs element: Putin’s efforts to destabilize NATO would seem to be advancing.

Just one breathtaking event may tell of change on that front: Putin has in recent weeks not only elicited an apology from Turkey’s President Erdogan in relation to a downed Russian jet, an event for which Erdogan refused apology back in November (see also on YouTube, “Erdogan: We won’t apologize for downing a Russian plane”– 11/26/2015), but has witnessed through the vehicle of “Coup and Countercoup” the Turkish state practically flipped into a first stage of fascism — mass arrests and firings, and there’s been this apparent mob attack on a “Gulen bookstore in Malatya”:

Imagine Moscow’s delight at what comes next in the process: “Turkey ready to resume pipeline project with Russia.”  Associated Press, Business Insider, July 26, 2016.

BackChannels has often stated in relation to dictatorships:  “Different Talks — Same Walk”.

Again, in different words, the Democratic Party has been infiltrated or swelled by the presence of “fascists on the left”; the GOP frontrunner has been smeared as authoritarian and nationalist in predisposition; and NATO now hosts two states — Hungary and Turkey — in which the political style of each president has departed from standards shepherding the classically liberal values of  other open and democratic societies.

Call it “Syndicate Red Brown Green” or Moscow’s efforts to play “ends against the middle”, the states of affairs for Americans in the middle — on both domestic and foreign affairs fronts — is looking rough.

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Is Moscow Building a Greater Medieval Theater of War?

26 Tuesday Jul 2016

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Islamic Small Wars, Syndicate Red Brown Green

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Putin’s Feudal Revanche

KGB/FSB
Vertical of Power
Oligarchs
State Validated Russian Orthodox Church

–>

Assad’s Incubation of ISIL

–>

ISIL Attack in Rouen

For each element but that pertaining to the Russian Orthodox Church and the last, which is breaking news today, in the above statement, BackChannels has developed material or reference, e.g., the bibliography in the “Russian Section” of the library, an analysis of how ISIS defends Assad in the shameful medieval display and theater that has been running for many years as “Assad vs The Terrorists” — it’s really Putin, Assad, Khamenei, (and Baghdadi) vs The Open Democracies of the World.

This blog is not the media spotlight, which today is going to light up the undeniably “Islamic terrorist” attack in Rouen, which may promote greater division between the Catholic and Muslim communities of France unless the Muslim community intercedes to opposite effect.  Instead, BackChannels noodles around in the post-Cold War, post-Soviet  neo-feudal and neo-imperial revanche engineered by Putin.

For the vast public dependent on western mass media for political information, the Cold War is ancient history.

The Soviet dissolved in bankruptcy and chaos on December 26, 1991, and that was the end of total incompatibility between the communist and capitalist systems.

Not quite.

From BackChannels’ perspective, Putin has neatly transitioned the political and social architecture developed during the Soviet Era into something a little different and conveniently kleptocratic but also effective in returning central governance to Russia.  The term of art applied on this blog — and used as a blog category — has been “21st Century Neo-Feudalism” and that applies to Moscow’s renewed validation of political absolute power and the encouragement of despotism and extremism — Far Left and Far Right — worldwide.

While the public reads about Moscow’s fighting Chechnya’s rebels or running sorties against ISIS (or noncombatants in marketplaces), Moscow in fact has hosted PFLP representatives (an easy lookup, “Moscow, PFLP”) and refused to designate either Hezbollah or Hamas as terrorist organizations.

Fact check me, please, and forget about the “Reset”.

There was none.

Moscow doesn’t play from one side of the chessboard: it may believe it owns the chessboard, i.e., the control of politics in their totality wherever its leverage and influence may reach.

So ISIL, incubated to bribe and goad The West — and to serve as field test targets for Moscow’s most advanced weapons systems — has launched a simple attack on a medieval western target, a Catholic church in France, and Moscow looks on, perhaps knowing that without its guidance, the popular challenge to Assad’s rule would have turned into an ordinary “Arab Spring” demotion of absolute authority.  Instead of that yawner: a promotion of global criminal enterprise using ISIL (and ISIL appears blissfully unaware of how it has been manipulated into existence) to bite into otherwise peaceful and prosperous free and far more predominantly lawful states.

Excerpts and Fast Reference

That Putin would need a spiritual and physical retreat from the pressures of Moscow at a time like this is not surprising. While Russia has withstood the pressures of economic sanctions and seemingly limitless information warfare while fighting proxy wars in Ukraine and Syria, the cracks in society are starting to show.

Real hardships for working and middle class Russians due to the general global economic crisis, the collapse in trade with Europe and oil price slump are increasingly evident. However, a spirit of resistance to globalism, to the degradation and nihilism post-Western societies offer the world is also evident, with a growing number of Russians participating in the life of the Orthodox Church and new temples going up all over Moscow and other major cities.

http://www.roguemoney.net/stories/2016/5/27/putin-and-patriarch-kirill-of-moscow-at-mt-athos – 5/28/2016

The patriarch recalled that Athos’ hopes for a calm and peaceful life used to be connected to Russia and the people of Russia, but all ties were severed after the 1917 revolution and only some of the brethren of the Russian St. Panteleimon’s Monastery eventually survived.

“It was all like a ghost, some of the buildings were burned and some were desolate,” the patriarch said about his first visit to Athos.

http://rbth.com/news/2016/05/29/patriarch-kirill-thanks-putin-for-supporting-athos-monastery_598311 – 5/29/2016

Analysts say the Kremlin would welcome a Trump win because the billionaire U.S. businessman has repeatedly praised Putin, spoken of wanting to get along with Russia, and has said he would consider an alliance with Moscow against Islamic State.

http://www.aol.com/article/2016/07/26/kremlin-hack-democratic-party-emails-dnc/21439043/ – 7/26/2016  Candidate Trump has no idea of the extent to which the Islamic State has been Moscow’s project through Assad’s early election to combat other challengers to his regime while easing off the al-Qaeda type to allow ISIS to consolidate and grow as a criminal organization.

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FTAC – On Putin & Associates’ Search for Medieval Absolute Power

25 Monday Jul 2016

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Political Psychology, Russia

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Moscow – Putin | Putin, Assad, Khamenei | Putin, Orban | Putin, Erdogan (never mind the superficial enmity and differences in “talk”) — supports political absolutism in relation to the malignant narcissism evident in the personalities of related leaders (like Orban, like Erdogan). For this reason, Putin has encourage both Far Left and Far Right political organizations and personalities; it is why his government has hosted PFLP (2014) and continues to refuse to condemn Hezbollah and Hamas. The form of power wanted by dictators — different talks: same walk — is the power to visit suffering on others with impunity. On the cheerful side of that 🙂 — the acquisition of unlimited narcissistic supply. Whatever the west’s own issues may be with business, corruption, and crime, the power-distributing and power-checking political systems threaten the “malignant narcissist” — the autocrat, the absolutist — and that’s really what their battles are about. The power of the special sovereign / great leader has its place in Russian history but is by no means confined to Russia. In fact, I think feudal despotism more the way of the world, even if one hopes not its only future, than checked-and-distributed political power, and that at least two NATO states feature illiberal autocrats as heads of state — Hungary and Turkey — tells what the argument is really about: i.e., Medieval Absolute Power vs Modern Checked and Distributed Power.

The paragraphs may grow shorter as I retype and recast BackChannels’ main themes.

Why do dictators do what they do?

Ah, pride — but pride that compensates and covers psychic injury.  Terms of art may include the following:

Narcissistic mortification

Malignant and Reparative Narcissism — I would refer to this as “narcissistic pathing” or channeling.

Narcissistic Supply — that approving roar of the crowd.

Unlimited Narcissistic Supply — Ah, glorious, unless you have found yourself on the Great Leader’s wrong side, i.e., somewhere in the opposition.

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Also in Media: “MH370 was likely a mass murder-suicide by pilot” | New York Post

24 Sunday Jul 2016

Posted by in Also in Media, Islamic Small Wars

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Each data point records something about the simulated flight, including altitude, speed, location and direction. The deleted records showed that the captain’s simulated flight departed from Kuala Lumpur, veered over the Southern Indian Ocean, and then kept going to the point where fuel would be exhausted over an empty stretch of sea.Search officials believe Flight 370 did exactly that, veering off course and then ceasing communications before plummeting into the water without a trace.

Read the whole story: MH370 was likely a mass murder-suicide by pilot | New York Post – 7/22/2016.

Also in Media: Erdogan’s Countercoup

21 Thursday Jul 2016

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Also in Media, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Fast News Share, Islamic Small Wars, Religion, Turkey

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Estimated number of “coup plotters” killed: 24.

Civil service firings and suspensions: 50,000.

Detained: 9,000

In BackChannels’ opinion, the coup — the real one — has been successful.

At the end of an interview (published July 15) with Slate contributor Isaac Chotiner, Jenny White, a professor at Stockholm University’s Institute for Turkish Studies, notes, “In previous coups the army took over because they thought institutions were not working properly or being populated with Islamists. But the institutions were still there. This time, the institutions themselves have been destroyed.”

Here follow a passel of factual and more recent reporting on the countercoup as President Erdogan consolidates his Putinesque domination (“different talks — same walk”) of Turkish politics.

BBC.  “Turkey coup attempt: Crackdown toll passes 50,000.”  July 20, 2016:

Before the vote, Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said that once emergency measures are invoked, the country would suspend its participation in the European Convention of Human Rights. He said the move was justified under a convention article allowing for such a suspension in times of emergency.

CBS/AP.  “More arrests as Turkish leader tightens the noose.”  July 21, 2016:

The detentions reported by Anadolu news agency come hours after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared a three-month state of emergency that is expected to expand the crackdown.

Already, nearly 10,000 people have been arrested while hundreds of schools have been closed. And nearly 60,000 civil service employees have been dismissed from their posts since the failed coup Friday.

Newton, Jennifer.  “Now Turkey suspects 15,000 TEACHERS over ties to Fethullah Gulen as Erdogan demands US hand the cleric over.”  Daily Mail, July 19, 2016.

Pamuk, Humeyra, and Ece Toksabay.  “Turkey says no return to past repression despite state of emergency.”  Reuters, July 21, 2016: “Governments can impose curfews and declare certain public and private areas off limits, and it can ban or restrict meetings, gatherings and rallies.”  Add to the elimination of freedom of assembly the possibility of warrantless searches and extralegal — or capriciously approved — murder, torture, and press censorship.

RFE/RL.  “More Arrests In Turkey As State Of Emergency Takes Effect.”  July 21, 2016:

Nearly one-third of Turkey’s roughly 360 serving generals have been detained. The Defense Ministry is investigating all military judges and prosecutors and has suspended 262 of them, broadcaster NTV reported, while 900 police officers in Ankara were also suspended on July 20.

Turkey’s education system has been hit particularly hard during the ongoing crackdown. The Education Ministry on July 20 added more than 6,500 new names to the list of 15,200 school employees suspended, state media reported.

Sarlyuce, Isll, Angela Dewan.  “Turkey coup: What does the state of emergency mean for democracy?”  CNN, July 21, 2016.

Withnall, Adam.  “Turkey suspends European Convention on Human Rights in wake of coup.”  Independent, July 21, 2016.

Earlier, from the coup period

Chotiner, Isaac.  “How Turkey Came to This:  The attempted military coup isn’t the country’s first.  but this time is different.”  Slate, July 15, 2016:

They think of it as recalibrating democracy, but they can’t get rid of pandering to religion because people are conservative. And Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) managed to pull that off to such an extent that they now have half the population, in part because that part of the population has been constantly pushed back and disrespected.

Koplow, Michael J.  “The Coup Attempt Will Leave Him Stronger.”  Foreign Affairs, July 18, 2016:

The 1997 “postmodern” coup that deposed Erdogan’s political mentor, Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan, and led to Erdogan’s subsequent imprisonment and suspension from politics for religious incitement only reinforced the notion among non-elite Turks that the old secular establishment, of which the army was the cornerstone, would never fully cede power.

It was only when Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) co-founder Abdullah Gül won their 2007 stare-down with the military over Gül’s candidacy for president (which the army opposed because Gül’s wife wore a headscarf), that Erdogan seemed to gain the upper hand and be in position to alter the balance of power with the army for good.

Pipes, Daniel.  “Why I Rooted for the Turkish Coup Attempt”.  Middle East Forum, July 18, 2016.

Before the “Coup”

The Economist.  “Erdogan and his generals: The once all-powerful Turkish armed forces are cowed, if not quite impotent.” February 2, 2013.

After the Coup — Rapidly Shared Links

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36868230 – Turkey coup attempt: Detentions ‘tip of the iceberg’ – 7/22/2016

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2016/07/turkey-crackdown-by-the-numbers-statistics-on-brutal-backlash-after-failed-coup/ – 7/26/2016

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-turkey-security-idUSKCN1061DK – 7/26/2016:

The religious affairs directorate removed another 620 staff including preachers and instructors in the Koran on Tuesday, bringing to more than 1,100 the number of people it has purged since the July 15 coup attempt.

http://www.voanews.com/content/gulen-accuses-edrogan-of-slow-motion-coup-in-turkey/3435542.html – 7/26/2016:

“My philosophy, inclusive and pluralist Islam dedicated to serve to human beings from every faith is antithetical to armed rebellion,” wrote the 75-year-old cleric, a former Erdogan ally who has been living in self-imposed exile in the eastern U.S. state of Pennsylvania since 1999.

http://www.npr.org/2016/07/27/487577923/despite-turkeys-crackdown-some-critics-are-still-speaking-out – 7/27/2017:

Earlier this year some 2,000 academics signed a petition calling for an end to the conflict with Kurdish militants in Turkey’s southeast. Dozens of signatories were sacked and many were investigated for spreading what the government called terrorist propaganda.

Odman says in a militarized society, no one is safe from eruptions of violence.

http://www.voanews.com/content/turkey-issues-arrest-warrants-for-dozens-more-journalists/3436603.html – 7/27/2016

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-turkey-security-journalists-idUSKCN1070NO – 7/28/2016 – “Turkey dismisses military, shuts media outlets as crackdown deepens.”

Turkey on Wednesday deepened a crackdown on suspected followers of a U.S.-based cleric it blames for a failed coup, dismissing nearly 1,700 military personnel and shutting 131 media outlets, moves that may spark more concern among its Western allies.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-37003819 – “Turkey coup attempt: Istanbul rally against plot” – 8/7/2016.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-37009931 – “Turkey’s Erdogan unnerves West with Putin visit.” – 8/9/2016.

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