Tag Archives: coup

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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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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Dictatorships – Putin’s, Erdogan’s – ‘Different Talks – Same Walk’

17 Sunday Jul 2016

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Fast News Share, Political Psychology, Politics, Turkey

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Seldom nor so perfectly has the pot called the kettle black as at this moment.  “Failed Turkey Coup May Signal Beginning of the End for NATO” crows Sputnik News:

The failed coup attempt in Turkey led by a faction of the military seeking the overthrow of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan citing the leader’s abysmal record on free speech, democratic freedoms, and human rights may be the final death knell for both NATO and the European Union who are holding onto the increasingly undemocratic leader for dear life.

Mirror, please.

When it comes to freedom of the press, Moscow fairly owns the other category — “state-controlled press” — and one may suppose poor Erdogan will just have to catch up (even though he may not have far to go).

Human rights?

Again, Russia (okay: Moscow-Damascus-Tehran) kills it (if it’s moving) in the Syrian Tragedy, the world’s most magnificent display — from Assad’s barrel bombs to Baghdadi’s beheadings — of contemporary barbarism.

How About “Rule of Law”?

Chaika.

Of course, it’s complicated and funny in a very serious way.

Also online:

http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/articles/13489/putins-judicial-vertical-russian-rule-of-law-takes-a-step-backward – 1/14/2014.

As perhaps echoes the Egyptian experience with Islamism in force, factions of the Turkish military may have harbored more of the values of modern and democratic life than the democratically elected “malignant narcissist” brought into power and attempted a coup (if the situation was not manipulated by Erdogan himself to strain out of the military the last of his opposition in that estate).  Quite unlike the Egyptian experience, which appeared to have brought the very nation out into the streets in support of its military, the Turkish coup has failed, giving Russia finger-wagging power to point to NATO’s support of a dictatorship not unlike Russia’s own.

Putin’s Russian Nationalism : Erdogan’s Sunni Islamism: Different Talks – Same Walk.

Ak_Saray_-_Presidential_Palace_Ankara_2014_002.jpg

“White Palace” – “Presidential Palace”, Ankara, 2014 – by Ex13, Wikimedia Commons.

BBC Europe reports, “Turkey has arrested 6,000 people after a failed coup, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowing to purge state bodies of the “virus” that caused the revolt.”

Way back in March, journalist Dexter Filkins writing for The New Yorker had reported on “Erdogan’s March to Dictatorship in Turkey”.

“Not long after his initial election, Erdoğan’s agents embarked on a large and sinister campaign to destroy his political opponents, jailing hundreds—journalists, university rectors, military officers, aid workers—on trumped-up charges and fabricated evidence,” Filkins wrote — and wrote some more about the arrests of journalists, the taking over of opposition press, the delivery of arms to Jabhat al-Nusra (an al-Qaeda affiliate), the easy go with ISIS in favor of unleashing his military against Kurdish interests.

Other journalists have weighed in with similarly cogent observations.

Alon Ben-Meir, Consortium News, May 13, 2016:

Not surprisingly, once Erdogan assumed the Presidency, he continued to chair cabinet meetings and even established a shadow cabinet with a handful of trusted advisers. He pointedly sidelined Davutoglu, who quietly resented Erdogan’s usurpation of the role and responsibility of the prime minister as if nothing had changed.

The premiership became a ceremonial post and the ceremonial presidency became the all-powerful office without a formal constitutional amendment to legally grant him the absolute authority he is now exercising.

Reuters (with staff contributors listed at the bottom of the piece), January 20, 2016:

A Turkish court on Wednesday sentenced a female teacher to almost a year in prison for making a rude gesture at President Tayyip Erdogan at a political rally in 2014, local media reports said on Wednesday.

Insulting public officials is a crime in Turkey, and Erdogan, the country’s most popular but most divisive politician, is seen by his critics as intolerant of dissent and quick to take legal action over perceived slurs.

Today’s Telegraph UK has laid out the timeline of the attempted coup and listed the sorry statistics involving general arrests, the slaughter overnight (“265 killed”), soldiers imprisoned, and judges facing arrest.

Breaking in Fox News: “Detention orders were filed for 53 more judges and prosecutors while 52 military officers were rounded up for their alleged roles in the plot, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency reported.”

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Ukraine – “We Want To Be Free From Dictatorship”

19 Wednesday Feb 2014

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Politics

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Fires burning on Independence Square, Kiev – YouTube – 2/19/2014.

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Я УКРАИНА I Am a Ukrainian HD – YouTube – 2/14/2014. 0:25:

We want to be free from dictatorship.  We want to be free from the politicians who work only for themselves, who are ready to shoot, to beat, to injure people just for saving their money, just for saving their houses, just for saving their power.

I want these people who are here, who have dignity, who are brave: I want them to lead a normal life.  We are civilized people but our government are barbarians.

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Deadly clashes between protesters and police in Kiev on Tuesday led to a fire-lit nighttime assault by Interior Ministry troops on the main protest encampment at Independence Square, in what may be a dramatic and irreversible turn in Ukraine’s months-long political crisis.

In violent turn, Ukraine fighting kills at least 25 – The Washington Post – 2/18-19/2014.

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Kiev Ukraine Protest 2014 LIVE Explosions | Protesters Clashes With Police | 14 People Dead – YouTube – 2/18/2014.

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EU foreign ministers have called an emergency meeting on Ukraine for Thursday.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said: “We have … made it clear that the EU will respond to any deterioration on the ground. We therefore expect that targeted measures against those responsible for violence and use of excessive force can be agreed by our member states as a matter of urgency.”

[Live updates] EU to discuss sanctions after Ukraine’s bloodiest day | euronews, – 2/18/2014.

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In the middle east: Putin-Assad-Khamenei.

In eastern Europe: hard to say.

As the late Barry Rubin has pointed out in regard to the middle east, the revolution goes with the military.  Mubarak had a good run, but come time to set up dynasty, Egypt’s military countenanced the revolution (and a year later rescued the latent democracy from a fascist Islamic organization that maintained the Mubarak-era torture chambers, jailed progressive journalists, altered the constitution to consolidate power in what may well have been another “president for life”.

No dice.

With Assad’s unforgivable assaults on Syrian noncombatant constituents in mind, this news unfolding from Ukraine may well signal the end of an age of dictatorship.  It may turn out a second fall of the Soviet Union, a post-Soviet challenge to the continuance of state oligarchies forged in the shadows of the Cold War.

One hopes that it is not also the start of a new era of autocratic repression, but with armed state organizations brought to the barricades, one never knows.  Who is in those military and paramilitary forces?  Are their senior and junior officers dissenting from the projection of state power and the arrangement of regional power?

The people have themselves: what else do they have?  Who else do they have on board with them?

As Nero fiddled, so I’ve heard, Putin as host of the most expensive winter games in history, has been in his glory in Sochi.

Kiev, Ukraine Protests Are Vladimir Putin’s Worst Nightmare | New Republic – 2/18/2014.

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Echoing Ukraine’s interim prime minister, Peskov told reporters that Russia saw the protests, during which deadly clashes erupted on Tuesday, as an attempted coup.

Putin, Ukraine’s Yanukovich spoke by telephone: Kremlin – Yahoo News – 2/19/2014.

“An attempted coup” seems the predictable spin.

We shall soon find out, I am sure, what Ukraine’s armed forces think about that, for protest in the streets is by itself a strong signal — ask Turkey’s Prime Minister Erdogan about that — but it is not a coup; it is, however, revolutionary.

Additional Reference

Washington Post: Ukraine rejects repression – 2/2/2014; Seizure of police stations in Lviv continues – 2/19/2014; Payatt: Yanukovych responsible for everything that happens in Ukraine – 2/19/2014; IM: Police probing 40 cases on mass riots in Ukraine – 2/19/2014; At least 25 reported dead, more than 1,000 injured in Feb. 18 clashes (VIDEO)

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Egypt – To Do What the Generals Have Done

03 Wednesday Jul 2013

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Egypt, Fast News Share, Middle East, Politics, Regions

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Ex-president Mohamed Morsi issued a statement on his official Facebook page saying that the Wednesday military announcement amounts to a coup.

“The procedures announced by the general command of the armed forces represents a full coup d’etat that is completely unacceptable,” the statement asserted.

Ahram Online.  “Morsi refuses army road map, says he remains Egypt president.”  July 3, 2013.

As stated to some of my Facebook friends, “Again, the hope, and this perhaps part of the expression by Egyptians opposed to Morsi’s Administration, may be that the military will prove more responsible than kleptocratic, which has been too often the case, more moderating in the political discourse than strident in its own right, and more capable than the Muslim Brotherhood of returning to Egyptians a true democracy working through an open conversation with the broadest possible participation.”

However, to get from here to there with a president out in front of a party devoted to the possession of power for the experience of it — only God knows how little it has done to further the interests and improve the lives of, at minimum, the millions of Egyptians who have come out on the streets in opposition to it — has meant risking civil war.

Now the question turns to the military’s own best foresight and planning with regard to getting in the way of the development of that kind of bloodshed.  If it is overwhelming in intelligence and force, it may well attenuate the polarization evident on the streets and forestall the kind of “brush fires” that would threaten to become a sullen low-intensity conflict; if it has miscalculated and the Muslim Brotherhood reaches for significant arms and war materiel and comes up with both, it could produce the kind of melting away of law and security experienced elsewhere in states hosting their portion of the Islamic Small Wars.

Quite unlike the Assad regime in Syria, which military in the hands of Maher al-Assad has been something worse than merely fascist in its devouring Syrian civilian assets and lives — the possessions of its own constituency — with a minimum of concern or discrimination between enemy combatants and those simply not involved with the politics, Egypt’s military appears both experienced and responsible.

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Are you in Egypt? Send us your experiences, but please stay safe.

Cairo (CNN) — Egypt’s military deposed the country’s first democratically elected president Wednesday night, installing the head of the country’s highest court as an interim leader, the country’s top general announced.

Gen. Abdel-Fatah El-Sisi said the military was fulfilling its “historic responsibility” to protect the country by ousting Mohamed Morsy,

Sayah, Ben Wedeman and Matt Smith.  “Morsy ou in Egypt coup.”  CNN, July 3, 2013.

From the Second Row Seat to History

If you’re in Egypt and sharing the experience with CNN, let me know if they pay you.

🙂

Honestly, when I moved out of the Washington, D.C. area, I thought I’d be shooting weddings on the weekends and out dancing in the evening.  In my wildest dreams I’d have never imagined developing a global life online and then, here I / you / we are (if you’re reading close to the publishing date and time on this post) communicating about the same thing from every location at about the same time across the planet at the speed of light.

Gone is the poor sod sent to the telegraph office to get the latest communique from the revolution, run it up to an editor for write-up, down to a department for layout, and, later, on to the press for the run on to broadsheet — and the “crank” on the other side of the process who reads of that communique and goes to the writing desks with a pen, later a typewriter, to fire off a missive to the editor on the matter.

Ah, the good old days!

And some of them were mine.

What I can’t do, CNN knows, from the second row seat to history is control my own live link where something’s happening.

I’m on the outside, nose pressed to a transparent wall — invisible “shields up” would be the Star Trek perspective — looking in and looking on.

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The president of the supreme constitutional court will act as interim head of state, assisted by an interim council and a technocratic government until new presidential and parliamentary elections are held.

“Those in the meeting have agreed on a roadmap for the future that includes initial steps to achieve the building of a strong Egyptian society that is cohesive and does not exclude anyone and ends the state of tension and division,” Sisi said in a solemn address broadcast live on state television.

Reuters.  “Egypt’s military leader suspends the constitution, appoints interim head of state.”  The Jerusalem Post, July 3, 2013.

Here’s a powerful headline from the Huffington Post (July 3, 2013): “Adly Mansour, Chief Justice of Egypt’s Supreme Constitutional Court, Named Interim President.”

Referencing Adly Mansour

Enein, Ahmed Aboul.  “SCC approves new chief justice appointment.”  Daily News Egypt, May 19, 2013.

Taylor, Adam.  “Here’s the New Acting President of Egypt.”  Business Insider, July 3, 2013.

According to sources (“Profile of Adly Mansour: Who is Egypt’s interim President?” the Independent, July 3, 2013), Adly was appointed to the Supreme Constitutional Court by Morsi and had taken up the position on June 1, 2013.

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