Category talk:Turkey

Peace Association of Turkey Report
A report of a group of Turkish Journalists, Lawyers, Members of Parliament etc has been handed over to Pillay's UN Syria booth, for a change focusing on the crimes of the "opposition". They are seeking national and international criminal justice and focus on the situation in and role of Turkey. Much of this is known (yet often not directly sourced in the report), but it is quite useful for a handy collection of dates (where and when was the SNC founded, was the formative "Friends of Syria" meeting, etc). A good part of the report deals with "Lawsuits in Turkey and their outcome". The first criminal complaint, against the actions on Turkish soil of Riad Al-A'saad, Belhadj and to-whom-it-will-lead, was already filed in late 2011 - and stonewalled as expectable. Good luck with getting Pillay et al to move their comfortable behinds at the UN.


 * War Crimes Committed Against The People Of Syria (38 pages, 1,1 MB PDF)

--CE (talk) 14:24, 28 January 2014 (UTC)

Events at the border
Another weapons transport got busted on the weekend, under direct supervision of MIT and covered-up by them after the fact with direct Erdogan protection. This is as bold as it gets. Turkey-involvement article might be worth considering, this is the best place to park it I could think of for the moment.


 * Turkish intelligence service trucks reveal secrets, Al Monitor, Jan 20, 2014


 * After explosives-detecting dogs gave appropriate signals, the prosecutor allowed steel containers in the trucks to be opened. In six metal crates, concealed among medical supplies, were mortar shells, rockets and various other ammunition. While the trucks were being moved to nearby Seyhan Town Gendarmerie Command for a detailed search, the trucks were blocked by MIT personnel from their Adana regional office. At that point, the governor, Adana Huseyin Avni Cos, the provincial police chief and the MIT regional director arrived at the scene accompanied by 200 policemen. Cos tried for one hour to persuade the prosecutor not to go ahead with the search but couldn’t. Then Cos wrote to the Ceyhan district governor and the Adana Provincial Gendarmerie Command, warning that the MIT was attached directly to the prime minister and searching MIT vehicles without the permission of the prime minister’s office would be an offense. The vehicles then were released under the governor’s instructions and continued on their way toward Syria.

--CE (talk) 11:28, 21 January 2014 (UTC)

A year later official documents have been leaked that confirm the story and Erdogan's direct involvement. Reaction as usual: Court order, censoring and cleansing of all information from the Turkish Internet. The story on Al Monitor. --CE (talk) 16:13, 24 January 2015 (UTC)

Testimonies of arrested prosecutors show state had links with ISIL Today's Zaman, May 10, 2015 --Caustic Logic (talk) 22:36, 14 May 2015 (UTC)

Later, PM Davutoğlu admitted the aid famously intercepted was weapon aid, but still not meant for jihadists, as Today's Zaman reports He said after hesitating for about a year and a half “Yes, I am saying this without any hesitation. That aid was going to the Turkmens. There will be a war next door and we will watch our Turkmen, Arab and Kurdish brothers being massacred. Really?” --Caustic Logic (talk) 23:24, 18 June 2015 (UTC)

After the re-taking of the border crossing at Tal Abywad, Kurdish forces arrested one informed IS fighter who tried to slip back into Turkey (many others did, hiding with the civilians who tore down the fence and were allowed in). He's interviewd and give many details about recruitment. A Turkish citizen, he was brought into the fold by people affiliated with an Islamic association called Hisader, that got locals hooked on drugs, then helped them get clean and turned them onto extreme Islam, then talked them into fighting in Syria. After this made the news, authorities shut the group down (ne mention of arrests). Al-Monitor tries on-location investigation, finds locals are "evasive, then hostile" and know nothing about it. --Caustic Logic (talk) 23:24, 18 June 2015 (UTC)

Defending their Territory - inside Syria
In recent weeks, Turkey has on the one hand agreed with Saudi Arabia and a growing body of nations that foreign fighters in Syria must leave. Both KSA and Turkey still fail to acknowledge their own roles getting them there, and Turkey insists especially that all foreigners helping the government must leave. Ankara also emphasized their strange line that Syria itself created the Al Qaeda threat they now face, and that the climate breeding them comes from both government authority and also the destruction of it Turkey has helped so much in.
 * Reuters, Feb 26: "Ahmet Davutoglu told Reuters a robust international strategy including "real intelligence cooperation" and withdrawal of all foreign fighters was needed to end the conflict and help millions of Syrians devastated by violence. The crisis was "a threat to all" ... because of the presence of these terrorist groups based on the power vacuum and because of the totalitarian and autocratic nature of the regime," he said. "they wanted to focus on the threat of terrorism, which in fact was created by them."

At the same time, Ankara threatened to send their own Turkish military into Syria for the first time openly - if need be - to protect a historical site they consider theirs, that's recently become threatened. Turkish-funneled Salafists in the Aleppo area have issued threats against the Turkish tomb of Suleyman Shah, grandfather of the founder of the Ottoman Empire. They hate "idolatrous" tombs, shrines, and the like, and were surely motivated by that, not by the chance to get the Turkish Army in there, and somehow probably on their side against the Syrian government. France deeded the tomb to Turkey while they were in charge there, in 1921. For anyone worried how long ago that was, the treaty was renewed in 1936. It's been guarded ever since by a force of Turkish troops, now numbering 25. Reuters reported "Turkey threatened on Friday to retaliate for any attack on the tomb ... The Turkish warning follows clashes this week between militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), an al Qaeda breakaway group, and rival rebel groups in the area of the tomb, which lies east of Aleppo near the Turkish border."
 * Presna Latina English
 * Reuters, March 14
 * Hurriyet Daily:
 * “As of now, there has been no [move on] our soldiers or our land there. But in the event of such a threat, we are ready to take all sorts of precautions,” Davutoğlu told reporters in the eastern province of Van on March 14. 
 * The tomb sits 25 kilometers from the Turkey-Syria border and remains under Turkish sovereignty under a 1921 treaty signed between Turkey and France, which was then the colonial power in Syria. That agreement was renewed after Syria gained independence in 1936.
 * Any attack against the tomb either from “the regime, from radical groups of from anybody” would be subjected to retaliation from Turkey, which would take all measures for the protection of that land, Davutoğlu said.
 * Furthermore we can guess, any retaliation, no matter who launched the attack, will be against the "regime." --Caustic Logic (talk) 09:13, 17 March 2014 (UTC)

March 2014 false flag attack

 * ''Moved to Talk:March 2014 false flag plan

Cameron Criticism?
January 18, 2015 AWD News.com British PM lashed out Turkey, warns against Erdoğan’s dangerous agendas
 * “I told President Obama earlier that MI6 had presented us with the incontrovertible facts regarding Turkish mischievous role in Syria and we believe Turkish officials’ current policies won’t create any conditions conducive to bring peace to the battle-scarred nation,” the Kuwaiti News Agency (KUNA) quoted the British premiere as saying during a press conference in Washington.


 * “We still believe Assad must relinquish the power and United Kingdom along with her other international partners will continue to support moderate opposition factions in Syria but Mr. Erdoğan is singing a different tune by supporting the ‘the wrong guys’,” added Cameron urging Ankara to desist from its support for ISIS terrorists.

Didn't find anyone else reporting this yet. KUNA English doesn't have it in most current or most read articles. Does note most recently KUNA English service closes down for Sunday, January 18, 2015. Hm. Weird quotes, come to think of it... --Caustic Logic (talk) 02:26, 19 January 2015 (UTC)

Islamists risk rupture in Turkey’s ties with Germany
Interesting piece in Today's Zaman about Turkey-Germany relations. Was quoted in an also read-worthy Mike Whitney article on counterpunch entitled Ankara: the New Capital of Jihad. I disagree with the motivation the latter author thinks is behind Washington's seemingly bizarre behaviour - getting rid of Assad as ultimate goal. He should think of the "new middle east" maps which show a Turkey much smaller than today and an independent Kurdistan. Will megalomaniac Erdogan help to destroy his country to fulfill other megalomaniacs' plans? --CE (talk) 12:04, 28 August 2015 (UTC)

Turkish Kurds fighting ISIS

 * Turkish Kurd grief: 'They don't even let us bury our dead' - Selin Girit, BBC News, 15 August 2015
 * ''More than 4,000 people from Turkey, predominantly Kurds, have gone to fight against the IS since the assault on Kobani started late last year.
 * ''Up until recently, those killed were allowed back for their funerals. Over 200 YPG fighters have been buried in Turkey so far.
 * ''But now the bodies of 23 fighters have been stopped at the border.

-- Petri Krohn (talk) 23:44, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

Kurds

 * Turkish soldiers engage Kurdish activists in Diyarbakir, 4 wounded - report, RT, 6 Feb., 2016 --Resup (talk) 11:42, 6 February 2016 (UTC)]
 * Ankara blast: Turkey PM says Syria Kurds to blame, BBC, Feb. 18, 2016 --Resup (talk) 12:24, 18 February 2016 (UTC)
 * ''The Syrian Kurdish PYD party, to whom the YPG is affiliated, said it "completely refuted" the claims of its involvement. Saleh Muslim, co-chair of the party, also denied claims the YPG was firing into Turkey. "They don't consider Turkey as an enemy," he told Reuters news agency.
 * Turkey FM invites ambassadors of the five UNSC permanent member countries for individual discussions TASS (Rus)

Attempted military coup, July 15, 2016

 * Persicope TV Erdogan interviewed via smartphone
 * Military helicopter shoots at people -video inside report
 * More video reports,-Mirror
 * John McLaughlin, former CIA deputy director, comments on the Turkish coup attempt., with Bloomberg's Mark Crumpton.
 * "Turkey's state agency Anadolu reports that the army's jets are flying over the capital Ankara to "neutralise" helicopters being used by those behind the coup. Anadolu names the group "Feto", which is what Turkey's government calls the Hizment movement run by the cleric Fetullah Gulen", and more live updates on BBC --Resup (talk) 23:30, 15 July 2016 (UTC)
 * Gulen denied involvement.


 * 16 July updates. Coup appears to be failing - 'Leaders Say Coup Foiled'--Resup (talk) 08:26, 16 July 2016 (UTC)
 * It is said that coup 'rebels' captured Turkish frigate Yavuz, presumably  with anti -ship missiles Harpoon and anti-aircraft Sea Sparrow . Senior commander said to be captured too.  (Meanwhile elsewhere coup appeares to fail). --Resup (talk) 12:25, 16 July 2016 (UTC)

Erdogan announces the coup has failed, blames people in Pennsylvania (meaning Gulen, who denies involvement). Soldiers surrender en masse on the Bosprous bridge. It's said the helicopter killed several policemen but was then shot down by a fighter jet. --Caustic Logic (talk) 12:45, 16 July 2016 (UTC)

Bahar Kimyongur tweets news of the aftermath, as mosques broadcast calls for jihad against the putschists, and jihadists "massacre" them while crying Allahu Akbar. We see the soldiers grabbed by the mob, beaten and stomped after surrendering, detained in a mosque, killed in a bloody manner, (here too) killed somehow, etc. Also, hundreds were arrested. Wider arrests and killings could continue. --Caustic Logic (talk) 12:45, 16 July 2016 (UTC)

Noting how badly it failed, how poorly it went for the putschists, and how it might strengthen Erdogan's image, cartoonist Carlos Latuff and Kimyongur re-tweet) (and I) find it worth wondering if this was an engineered coup. Erdogan loves to arrest military people for alleged coup plots. This should be his biggest haul yet, and might finally purge things adequately, if he can get enough Islamists recruited to replace them. --Caustic Logic (talk) 12:45, 16 July 2016 (UTC)


 * Notably Latuff drew the cartoon already last evening while the news of a coup attempt was just breaking, long before it was clear that it would fail. So at least good intuition, and it certainly isn't far-fetched that Erdogan and his cronies would pull something like this off and lure actual military willing to putsch into joining. Nice teamwork on banning that smart bot btw... ;oD --CE (talk) 12:51, 16 July 2016 (UTC)
 * ;oD --Caustic Logic (talk) 12:58, 16 July 2016 (UTC)
 * Latuff instincts: seem good here, but FTR he has moments at least where his instincts failed him, when presented with tempting tales of barbarism from Syria: Hamza al-Khatib cartoon vs. the evidence, which would not so easily translate into a cartoon, and for good reason. --Caustic Logic (talk) 13:46, 16 July 2016 (UTC)
 * In Russian sources, competing conspiracy theories float, one line similar to the above ("Coup" in Turkey: clownery for Erdogan), pointing to seemingly inept actions of the plotters.  Another line,  Kadyrov and others ) call the plotters 'pro-Western military' aiming to undermine 'independent line' assigned to Erdogan, sort of incomplete Turkish Maidan, and -  implied if not said--with the same foreign sponsor.   Alleged leaders are said to be Muharrem Köse, an air force colonel, and some others (also here), possibly pro-Western, or can be pro civil state, like it was before Erdogan. - I am yet to subscribe to a theory what was this really about. --Resup (talk) 14:26, 16 July 2016 (UTC)
 * One more version, pro-Islamist plotters pretending to be pro-Ataturk, clearing some space for themselves  ...the statement of the junta, that was forcefully read on the official government TV as the coup got under way, bore a strong resemblance to Mustafa Kemal Ataturk's famous address to the Turkish Youth. The coup plotters also called themselves the "Peace at Home Council", which is derived from Ataturk's famous saying "Peace At Home, Peace In the World"  --Resup (talk) 18:25, 16 July 2016 (UTC)


 * Also, some say - but I found no primary source yet - that at least some participating soldiers thought they were taking part in an exercise. --CE (talk) 12:55, 16 July 2016 (UTC)


 * This seems to be true, heard it from several sources now, including from the author of two read-worthy, detailed articles on Al-Monitor here and there. That's pretty close to the "official story", and I must say it's rather plausible. Strange case of "conspiracy theorists" buying the official story - I'm in good company with Sibel Edmonds and James Corbett. ;o) --CE (talk) 18:25, 20 July 2016 (UTC)

I didn't cheer for this attempt, by the way. The timing was so weird I wondered just who this was and where it would go (I suspected it would succeed, tho - small surprise there). Consider how it went backwards of what happened in Egypt (which I still cheer, btw - democracy is the right way until it turns too stupid and evil for toeration, which in Turkey was a few years ago...). In Egypt, the Islamist elected president was deposed as he deepened his projects at home and started declaring war on Syria. Here, Erdogan has been making the news for kind of the opposite - taking on ISIS, maybe for real, especially after getting hit back already, apologizing to Russia, approving Kurdish stuff, and maybe even normalizing relations with Syria. Hey, can an asshole finally learn he's being an asshole, nobody wants him, and actual change? (mmm... we'll see). But WHY was right now the time to finally get rid of the guy? I was wondering if it was his own hard-line allies. Still not clear who it was, all in all. They have bad prediction of success vs. failure, and bad timing (that is, if their real goal was to oust Erdogan). --Caustic Logic (talk) 13:10, 16 July 2016 (UTC)
 * I was watching CNN Türk for hours live while "Soldiers" went inside (I did not see them), to stop the broadcast, some time after the newsspeaker was gone in a loud argument, you heard a huge crowd screaming "Türkiye bismillah Allahu-Akbar...", one guy appeared was phoning then in front of camera screamed takbir, and the usual stuff, really scary. These were not what I`d call religious people - just a mob abusing the fascist components of this religion similar to Al-Qaeda. Earlier one woman had to read a statement of the coup group - where they claimed the reason, was Erdogans wars, the resulting loss of lives, and the damage he did to foreign relations of Turkey, as justification for their action - FriedemannWo
 * Not clear what all that means, but the forced broadcasting at least partly fits the bill of a shady operation: you might appeal to real problems with a fake solution that leads people into a trap, led by certain people willing to set those other people up and make them look bad... --Caustic Logic (talk) 14:21, 16 July 2016 (UTC)

Confronted with growing suspicions he engineered the events himself, Erdogan told a CNN International interviewer "Unfortunately, that is only misinformation. How can you plan such a thing? How can you allow so many civilians to lose their lives? How can human conscience allow that? That is beyond possible." He doesn't ask why would anyone do that - this part makes perfect sense. So he plays the morality card. "Tayyip Erdogan and his friends, his colleagues would be the first ones to reject that kind of idea. We risk our lives for the people," he added. The denial was widely re-published by pro-Erdogan media, as if it really disproved the claims. --Caustic Logic (talk) 12:24, 19 July 2016 (UTC)

Deaths and Injuries
Early official toll from Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım: 208 were killed, including 60 police officers, three soldiers, and 145 civilians. Some 1,491 people were also wounded. (Hurriyet) Later it was 256 dead, then at least 290 according to a foreign ministry statement, including "190 citizens," as RTE reports it... The how, when, where and why of so many killed civilians/citizens is of interest, and not clear yet. --Caustic Logic (talk) 12:58, 19 July 2016 (UTC)

One interesting case: Erol Olcak, an AKP ally "described as "masterminding" President Erdogan's presidential campaign in 2014 by Turkish media," killed along with his 16-year-old son. Erdogan broke down in near-tears at his friend's funeral. (RTE) They were "shot dead on the Bosphorous bridge," near the known assemblage of mutinying soldiers (whose rifles may have been unloaded for the exercise - confirmation pending on that), apparently on Friday night. "They had been on the bridge to protest against the putsch launched by a group within the military, according to local media."

I guess they were not shot by those soldiers, but picked of by sniper rounds, fired from an unseen position at one end of the bridge. Or, they weren't even on the bridge, next to the soldiers that, most were to presume, were staging a real coup. Those might try to arrest or shoot political figures like himself. --Caustic Logic (talk) 12:58, 19 July 2016 (UTC)

Video "proof" of criminal coup violence:
 * On the bridge over the Bosphorus army shooting protesters #turkey #istanbul
 * Turkish Coup - Jets Flying Over Ankara - Istanbul Bosphorus Bridge Blocked (also shows helicopter firing on something distant)

Purge Victims
Arrests and dismissals: Soldiers, police, judges, other (forthcoming)


 * Israel National News:
 * On Monday, European Union commissioner Johannes Hahn said the rapid mass arrests immediately following the coup attempt suggested the purges were pre-planned. “It looks at least as if something has been prepared. The lists are available, which indicates it was prepared and to be used at a certain stage. I’m very concerned. It is exactly what we feared.”


 * Similar concerns aired by a lawmaker with the MP of the Social Democratic Party of Austria, Stefan Schennach, to Rusian agency Sputnik on Sunday.


 * Euronews report July 19 that just within three days since the incidents, tens of thousands of (culprits?) in all sectors of society had been suspended, fired, or jailed. What a wide-ranging conspiracy! It's like half of Turkish society (the non-Islamist half) was behind the idiotic thing and would have to go bye-bye forever, to make way for an Islamic state. As Euronews reports it:

Turkey’s coup in numbers:

21,000 private teachers have licences removed

15,000 suspended from education ministry

8,000 police officers detained or suspended

6,000 soldiers detained

1,500 staff at Ministry of Finance dismissed

2745 judges dismissed

1,577 deans - Education board demands resignation

492 sacked from Religious Affairs Directorate

399 from Ministry of Family and Social Policies stripped of responsibilities

257 fired from the prime minister’s office

100 intelligence officials sacked

47 district governors dismissed

30 provincial governors dismissed

20 news websites blocked --Caustic Logic (talk) 08:07, 20 July 2016 (UTC)

Other Events

 * 28.6.2016 "At least 2 blasts rock Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport, multiple injuries reported" TASS (Rus) RT (Engl) --Resup (talk) 20:18, 28 June 2016 (UTC)

Fakes
Erdogan saved a secret services agent? Rusvesna report is telling us that the man recently saved by Erdogan from jumping from a bridge was a secret services agent... (an article with plausible photos inside) --Resup (talk) 00:34, 30 December 2015 (UTC)