' Boy, a 'little' coup certainly goes a Lonnnng way around Here! Just when I thought I was going to have to live with this stinking, decaying Democracy buzzard hanging around my sorry neck forever, the Autocratic Gods send me a boost out the hell of freedom, and western Democracy! Well, news alert my fellow Turkyians! Just go back to sleep, all is 'well', you are 'safe' in My hands. Any thoughts that you may have Ever had about the 'freedom' that Democracy brings was just a little nightmare, nothing to worry yourselves silly about. I had been wondering how I was going to 'clean house' around here without causing a big scene doing it. And wouldn't you Know, along comes a silly little coup attempt that has given me cartblanche to lop off as many heads as I want to. all in the name of 'preserving democracy' in our crazy little country. Oh my, my, so many heads to roll, so many purges to conduct, so many innocent people to trample, so many 'freedoms' to adjust. I'm thinking of changing the name of my country to 'Little North Korea'.
Must make a list and check it twice, see who's been naughty, and who's been nice? Oooo....there's been a Lot of Badies! Lets see now, must make priorites, who to supress first, hmmmm....oh yeah, Teachers, and Educators, Professors, that's an easy group to weed out, way too smart for their pants! I bet Somewhere in that group there's one or two that taught some of the Real coup members back when they were children. Lesson 'learned' there! Ahhhh....Church leaders, now There's a guilty bunch if I ever saw any. School Crossing Guards! Ha! Round'em up, they probably know the names of 'guilty' teachers! Hospital workers, Doctors, Nurses, no doubt they treated some of the wounded coup members, round'em up! And not to mention the Military, which I have just barely begun to rake over the coals of hellfire! And of course there's the Police! They All will squeel like roasting pigs! Judges, and lawyers! It's doubtful any of Them even Attempted to stop the coup! They'll give up the 'guilty' policemen! Christian Ministers, and lax western leaning Clerics! They'll give up their parishners. Lets see their Democratic loving Gods save then Now!
Oh, I am So excited! Even when I was a young boy I dreamed of being a Dictator of my Own country! And Now Look! My day has finally arrived! No one can stop me Now! The EU, and NATO can just kiss my radicalized Islamic butt! 'Freedom' is just another word for 'Western Thought'! I have suspended 'Democracy' and substituted it with my Own Personal interpretation of it, called 'Total Dictatorship'! Oh, This is So Fun! I think I'm sweating in my skivies with such excitement! Look how they fear me now, look how they cower under my dictatorial thumb! Worms! I Now have my own little country where I can do absolutly Anything to Anyone that I wish. And believe you Me, I Wish greatly! No one can stop me now! I'm un-touchable! Un-approachable! Un-appreciated! And not a Little un-hinged, some say! I'll get Them too! I will soon, and you can mark my dictator like words on this, become a very sore Thorn in the sides of Any 'Real' Democratic Country, especially Any EU or NATO member who thinks that I will 'fear' repurcussions due to my little 'Purge', and total destruction of Democracy in my personal little fifedom of Turkey, AKA 'Little North Korea'. Oh, and our stupid 'Ally' the United States? You will pay dearly for this little act. And Germany? I will cause your country to turn upside down, and your infidels will burn in the hell I have created for you. Radicalized Islam will soon be the rule of 'Law and Order' here, and There. Thanks be to all the foolish near sighted citizens who heeded my call during the attempted coup, those same unwitting souls are Now my very 'prisoners' who have no avenue of escaping my seriously out of control wrath.
Well, must continue making my list of victims, er...'guilty' parties that is. Lets see now, Relatives, friends, shop owners, farmers, brick layers...Hmmm...actually Any person who can read and write, or even put a complete sentence together, or think for themselves...yeah, Those are Very dangerous people indeed, not to be trusted! Must Install ignorant, brainwashed, mortally scared Puppets in the now vacant positions of the thousands of innocents arrested and purged. This country does Not need educated people, they are dangerous to My form of 'democracy'..must make a list..must check it twice..or three times even...busy, busy....a proper dictators job is never done, must learn to sleep with one eye open...must learn to Mindread, and tell the future...busy,busy...'. :/ :/ :/
World |
Turkey culls nearly 1,400 from army, overhauls top military council
ANKARA/ISTANBUL, Turkey |
ANKARA/ISTANBUL, Turkey Turkey dismissed nearly 1,400 more members of its armed forces and stacked the top military council with government ministers on Sunday, moves designed by President Tayyip Erdogan to put him in full control of the military after a failed coup.The scale of Erdogan's crackdown - more than 60,000 people in the military, judiciary, civil service and schools have been either detained, suspended or placed under investigation since the July 15-16 coup - has unnerved Turkey's NATO allies, fuelling tension between Ankara and the West.
Adding to the acrimony, Turkey's EU Affairs minister hit out at Germany on Sunday after its constitutional court upheld a ban on Erdogan making a televised address to a rally of pro-government Turks in Cologne.
The new wave of army expulsions and the overhaul of the Supreme Military Council (YAS) were announced in the official state gazette just hours after Erdogan said late on Saturday he planned to shut down existing military academies and put the armed forces under the command of the Defence Ministry.
According to the gazette, 1,389 military personnel were dismissed for suspected links to the Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen, who is accused by Turkey of orchestrating the failed putsch. Gulen, who lives in self-imposed exile in the United States, has denied the charges and condemned the coup.
It comes after an announcement last week that more than 1,700 military personnel had been dishonourably discharged for their role in the putsch, which saw a faction of the military commandeer tanks, helicopters and warplanes in an attempt to topple the government.
About 40 percent of Turkey's generals and admirals have been dismissed since the coup, in which Erdogan says 237 people excluding the plotters were killed and more than 2,100 wounded.
The government also said its deputy prime ministers and ministers of justice, the interior and foreign affairs would be appointed to YAS. The prime minister and defence minister were previously the only government representatives on the council.
They will replace a number of military commanders who have not been reappointed to the YAS, including the heads of the First, Second, and Third Armies, the Aegean Army and the head of the Gendarmerie security forces, which frequently battle Kurdish militants in the southeast. The changes appear to have given the government commanding control of the council.
Erdogan, who narrowly escaped capture and possible death on the night of the coup, told Reuters in an interview on July 21 that the military, NATO's second-biggest, needed "fresh blood".
'BACKSLIDING'
German media said authorities had decided to bar Erdogan from addressing a rally via videoconference in the city of Cologne on Sunday due to concerns over public order, prompting an angry response from Turkey's EU Affairs Minister Omer Celik.
"German Constitutional Court's decision on the anti-coup rally in Cologne is an utter backsliding in freedom of speech and democracy," he said in English on Twitter.
Germany is home to Europe's largest ethnic Turkish diaspora.
The rally in Cologne, in which Turks waved national flags and pictures of Erdogan, was one of several planned on Sunday in European as well as Turkish cities and towns.
Erdogan has upbraided Western leaders for not visiting Turkey since the coup. He said it was "shameful" that some in the West seemed more concerned about the fate of the plotters than in standing with a fellow NATO member.
The aggressive military purges come at a time when the armed forces is stretched by fighting with Kurdish insurgents in southeast Turkey and threats from Islamic State militants on its border with Syria. Four soldiers were killed by the Kurdish militants on Sunday in two separate incidents, officials said.
Turkey's military is taking part in the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. Its Incirlik Air Base is used by coalition forces for missions against Islamic State.
Security was tight in the immediate area around Incirlik on Sunday, Turkish security sources said, before an expected visit by the U.S. chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Joseph Dunford.
While there were rumours on social media that security forces were at the ready on worries about another coup attempt, a U.S. military spokesman at the base said they had not seen an increased Turkish police presence.
"It's business as usual here," he said, without giving his name. "We are not seeing anything like that."
Incirlik has seen some scattered protests in the days since the coup as pro-government supporters have called on the United States to extradite Gulen. Washington says it will only do so if it receives clear evidence of Gulen's involvement in the coup.
Dunford's visit comes at a delicate time for Turkey's relations with the United States, given Erdogan's constant demands for Gulen's extradition.
CONSPIRACY THEORIES
With mass purges of suspected Gulen supporters well underway in all state institutions, the media and some private companies, the Turkish Football Federation said on Sunday all its affiliated boards had resigned for the sake of "security checks". It said it was cooperating fully with the authorities.
Erdogan told broadcaster A Haber on Saturday that Gulen was a "pawn" being controlled by a greater power.
"There is a mastermind behind him. That mastermind is the one who took him to the United States and who helped him avoid any judicial process," he said.
Conspiracy theories have flourished in Turkey since the attempted coup, with one pro-government newspaper saying the putsch was financed by the CIA and directed by a retired U.S. army general using a cell phone in Afghanistan.
The United States has denied any involvement and any prior knowledge of the coup attempt.
Erdogan has said that Gulen harnessed his extensive network of schools, charities and businesses, built up in Turkey and abroad over decades, to create a "parallel state" that aimed to take over the country.
The government is now going after Gulen's network of schools and other institutions abroad. Since the coup, Somalia has shut two schools and a hospital believed to have links to Gulen, and other governments have received similar requests from Ankara, although not all have been willing to comply.
In an unexpected move, Erdogan has said that as a one-off gesture, he would drop all lawsuits filed against people for insulting him. He said the decision was triggered by feelings of "unity" against the coup attempt.
It could also be aimed at silencing his Western critics.
Prosecutors have opened more than 1,800 cases against people for insulting Erdogan since he became president in 2014 after serving as prime minister for 11 years. Those targeted include journalists, cartoonists and even children.
(Additional reporting by Gulsen Solaker in Ankara, Humeyra Pamuk, Ayla Jean Yackley and Daren Butler in Istanbul and Seyhmus Cakan in Diyarbakir; Writing by David Dolan; Editing by Gareth Jones and Richard Balmforth)
Adding to the acrimony, Turkey's EU Affairs minister hit out at Germany on Sunday after its constitutional court upheld a ban on Erdogan making a televised address to a rally of pro-government Turks in Cologne.
The new wave of army expulsions and the overhaul of the Supreme Military Council (YAS) were announced in the official state gazette just hours after Erdogan said late on Saturday he planned to shut down existing military academies and put the armed forces under the command of the Defence Ministry.
According to the gazette, 1,389 military personnel were dismissed for suspected links to the Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen, who is accused by Turkey of orchestrating the failed putsch. Gulen, who lives in self-imposed exile in the United States, has denied the charges and condemned the coup.
It comes after an announcement last week that more than 1,700 military personnel had been dishonourably discharged for their role in the putsch, which saw a faction of the military commandeer tanks, helicopters and warplanes in an attempt to topple the government.
About 40 percent of Turkey's generals and admirals have been dismissed since the coup, in which Erdogan says 237 people excluding the plotters were killed and more than 2,100 wounded.
The government also said its deputy prime ministers and ministers of justice, the interior and foreign affairs would be appointed to YAS. The prime minister and defence minister were previously the only government representatives on the council.
They will replace a number of military commanders who have not been reappointed to the YAS, including the heads of the First, Second, and Third Armies, the Aegean Army and the head of the Gendarmerie security forces, which frequently battle Kurdish militants in the southeast. The changes appear to have given the government commanding control of the council.
Erdogan, who narrowly escaped capture and possible death on the night of the coup, told Reuters in an interview on July 21 that the military, NATO's second-biggest, needed "fresh blood".
'BACKSLIDING'
German media said authorities had decided to bar Erdogan from addressing a rally via videoconference in the city of Cologne on Sunday due to concerns over public order, prompting an angry response from Turkey's EU Affairs Minister Omer Celik.
"German Constitutional Court's decision on the anti-coup rally in Cologne is an utter backsliding in freedom of speech and democracy," he said in English on Twitter.
Germany is home to Europe's largest ethnic Turkish diaspora.
The rally in Cologne, in which Turks waved national flags and pictures of Erdogan, was one of several planned on Sunday in European as well as Turkish cities and towns.
Erdogan has upbraided Western leaders for not visiting Turkey since the coup. He said it was "shameful" that some in the West seemed more concerned about the fate of the plotters than in standing with a fellow NATO member.
The aggressive military purges come at a time when the armed forces is stretched by fighting with Kurdish insurgents in southeast Turkey and threats from Islamic State militants on its border with Syria. Four soldiers were killed by the Kurdish militants on Sunday in two separate incidents, officials said.
Turkey's military is taking part in the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. Its Incirlik Air Base is used by coalition forces for missions against Islamic State.
Security was tight in the immediate area around Incirlik on Sunday, Turkish security sources said, before an expected visit by the U.S. chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Joseph Dunford.
While there were rumours on social media that security forces were at the ready on worries about another coup attempt, a U.S. military spokesman at the base said they had not seen an increased Turkish police presence.
"It's business as usual here," he said, without giving his name. "We are not seeing anything like that."
Incirlik has seen some scattered protests in the days since the coup as pro-government supporters have called on the United States to extradite Gulen. Washington says it will only do so if it receives clear evidence of Gulen's involvement in the coup.
Dunford's visit comes at a delicate time for Turkey's relations with the United States, given Erdogan's constant demands for Gulen's extradition.
CONSPIRACY THEORIES
With mass purges of suspected Gulen supporters well underway in all state institutions, the media and some private companies, the Turkish Football Federation said on Sunday all its affiliated boards had resigned for the sake of "security checks". It said it was cooperating fully with the authorities.
Erdogan told broadcaster A Haber on Saturday that Gulen was a "pawn" being controlled by a greater power.
"There is a mastermind behind him. That mastermind is the one who took him to the United States and who helped him avoid any judicial process," he said.
Conspiracy theories have flourished in Turkey since the attempted coup, with one pro-government newspaper saying the putsch was financed by the CIA and directed by a retired U.S. army general using a cell phone in Afghanistan.
The United States has denied any involvement and any prior knowledge of the coup attempt.
Erdogan has said that Gulen harnessed his extensive network of schools, charities and businesses, built up in Turkey and abroad over decades, to create a "parallel state" that aimed to take over the country.
The government is now going after Gulen's network of schools and other institutions abroad. Since the coup, Somalia has shut two schools and a hospital believed to have links to Gulen, and other governments have received similar requests from Ankara, although not all have been willing to comply.
In an unexpected move, Erdogan has said that as a one-off gesture, he would drop all lawsuits filed against people for insulting him. He said the decision was triggered by feelings of "unity" against the coup attempt.
It could also be aimed at silencing his Western critics.
Prosecutors have opened more than 1,800 cases against people for insulting Erdogan since he became president in 2014 after serving as prime minister for 11 years. Those targeted include journalists, cartoonists and even children.
(Additional reporting by Gulsen Solaker in Ankara, Humeyra Pamuk, Ayla Jean Yackley and Daren Butler in Istanbul and Seyhmus Cakan in Diyarbakir; Writing by David Dolan; Editing by Gareth Jones and Richard Balmforth)
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