If you are in NATO and refuse to follow order...rowan wrote:The military basically ran Turkey up until Erdogan's reign. That had been the case since the collapse of the Ottoman Empire at the end of WWI, and was necessary to enforce strictly secular government on a 99% Muslim majority nation. What changed? The military refused to support the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Yes, Erdogan had already come to power at that time, but the army maintained control. In 2006, in fact, they raised the specter of a coup to block Erdogan's choice of a religiously-inclined president. Behind the scenes, however, the balance of power was changing. If you're in NATO and you refuse to follow orders, there are serious consequences to pay. It appears from every conceivable angle that this was the point at which the military began to crumble and Erdogan suddenly transformed into superman. Within a year of the threatened coup in 2006 he had thrown the entire military brass in prison over a plot that was later proved to have been fabricated. They've all been released since, of course, but there were no consequences for those who put them in there. As for the Gulenists, former allies of Erdogan's, it is well-known that they have been in collusion with the CIA for a very long time. That is because the madrasas they operate throughout the Middle East and Africa were partly designed from the outset to train anti-Communist jihadis. Hence the presence of Gulen himself in a Pennsylvanian mansion. The Gulenists have people throughout the Turkish government, armed forces, schools and other institutions, and are regarded as a parallel state. But Erdogan has been systematically purging them since long before the attempted "coup." So taking all this into account, would Gulen himself want to organize a coup? I doubt it very much. But members of his organization may have easily been persuaded otherwise, especially the youngsters, and it appears that the vast majority of those involved were mere kids barely out of high school. My guess is, the CIA organized it, then pulled out at the criticial moment, leaving these kids standing around guarding bridges and airports like fools, as they waited for the support that never came. They were the pawns, and more than a few were killed by enraged mobs as the whole thing fizzed before it had even really got started. Meanwhile, Erdogan had been live on TV the whole time, telling his people to go out and fight the putschists. No wonder he called it a 'Gift from God!' The putschists had not only failed dismally to capture him or fire on his plane as he flew directly back into the country's major airport, they couldn't even close down the TV stations he was talking on. If it wasn't a 'Gift from God,' it was certainly a gift from someone. Cui bono? The answer to that was clear the moment the attempted "coup" began. How does that benefit America? Because they are hand-in-glove with the leadership here, regardless what you may see in the media. Turkey is of the utmost strategical importance to the US, with so much at stake in Iraq & Syria, Iran on the eastern border and Russia just across the Black Sea. So if they can't rely on the military, and they certainly can't rely on the democratic will of the majority, then they need to have a leader in place that they can rely on, & they've been supporting him every step of the way. As for the Gulenist madrasas, their use-by-date has expired, which is why they've been thrown under the bus on this occasion.
Really, so all NATO governments were clones then? Hardly correct,there are plenty of examples of NATO countries not following the US had, none of those have resulted in coups. But again, this is just opinion without fact.
& more than a million wave their flags cheerfully.