on a interesting side note Boris Johnson of breexit fame is the great grandson of
Ali Kemal a prominent Turkish politician who was murdered by the Turkish military. (who knew?)
I’ve been following what has been going on in Turkey somewhat, since we visited about four years ago. It was amazing how much diversity was there. Our beautiful guide was so strong and proud. She said if they ever try to take away their secular government, the people and the military will fight, they will never let their freedom go. And since then, I’ve been watching Erdogan chipping away at their freedoms. Taking more power for himself, imprisoning more people, stealing like crazy, trying to create his own Islamic fiefdom. It’s heartbreaking.
This is very awkward for the US. Turkey is a member state of NATO and a key ally in the war against ISIS.
Article 5 states that an attack on one NATO member nation is an attack on all of them. The US invoked Article 5 after 9/11.
The US is treaty bound to come to the aid of Turkey if it comes under armed attack. Even though Erdogan was democratically elected, he is widely internationally despised.
Does Article 5 apply if a NATO member is attacked “from within”? I don’t think all of the NATO countries are obligated to defend the elected government from its own military. On the other hand, don’t expect our government to call this a “coup” if it succeeeds, Section 508 of the Foreign Assistance Act reads: “None of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available pursuant to this Act shall be obligated or expended to finance directly any assistance to any country whose duly elected head of government is deposed by military coup or decree.”
My understanding is that Article 5 requires other member states to recognize the armed attack on one member state as an attack on all of them, but it does not obligate them to actually do anything about it.
busdriver11 you have an awesome handle on turkey.
promemedridian —turkey’s secular military is an enemy of ISIS but the ruling party that was “democratically” elected is hardly a foe of ISIS and helps in the movement of ISIS weapons, people and cash to Syria and Iraq. in turkey the military and rulers are not always aligned and as Erdogan tried to purge the military …they pushed back hence the coup. also when dealing with ISIS erodgan would need to be bypassed by those looking for help from turkey in that battle.
Erdogan is not a friend of Daesh, and Daesh is not a friend of Erdogan or Turkey (as evidenced by Daesh attacks).
However, Erdogan seemingly acts as if he would rather watch Daesh, the various Kurdish forces, and the Syrian government beat each other up, and seemingly sees the Kurdish forces as the most dangerous threat, due to domestic politics (his AK party initially made some promising steps of reconciliation with the Kurdish minority in Turkey, but has since gone back to a more hostile policy). So others more focused on defeating Daesh are understandably annoyed.
Zobroward, in regards to Turkey, it is ironic that Boris Johnson is the new UK Foreign Secretary, considering Johnson won the Spectator-sponsored contest to write the most offensive limerick about Erdogan.
Anyone remember the last time an exiled opposition leader directed a revolt from afar and returned triumphantly to his home country as leader?
It was the Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran.
The articles I’m reading make it sound very much as if the military is divided on this, and junior officers are behind the attempted coup. Erdogan, from an unknown location (and mosques) are calling for people to take to the streets to protest against the coup, and thousands are apparently doing so. So this could end up in a civil war, depending on how divided the military is. Also, as someone mentioned, the police are opposing the coup.
TomSeniorofBoston,
While Robert Mugabe was exiled from Rhodesia, he lauched the opposition fight in Rhodesia’s civil war. Southern Rhodesia became Zimbabwe.
erodogan is very much allied with ISIS and an attack on an airport is not evidence to the contrary it is not so simple how things work. the arming, funding and advising of ISIS is deeply intertwined with both saudi arabia (and several other sunni gulf states) and the turkish government. it is true erogodan would like to destroy the kurdish people…the ethnic cleansing and genocide of the kurdish people is something shared by iran,iraq ,syria as well as turkey. the kurds somehow survive with no friends and a lot of enemies. even as they bravely fight ISIS the current U.S. administration ignores turkey’s brutal repression of the kurds because edorgran is our “friend”
DonnaL,
Why is it surprising that the police oppose the coup? Transparency International ranks Turkey between South Africa and Brazil in corruption. If the police is profiting, then why would they want to rock the boat?
Prime Meridian, who said I found it surprising? I certainly didn’t say that. I’m not surprised at all, in fact.
The current claim is that the coup failed.
Zobroward,
Erdogan has much to gain by stirring up ISIS:
More foreign aid to Turkey
"Erdogan has much to gain by stirring up ISIS:
More foreign aid to Turkey"
he is a supporter of the caliphate concept (of course he thinks he should be it’s leader)
i’m a big Fareed Zakaria fan. Here’s 2 minutes of commentary from him that I found helpful based on the current info available: http://www.snappytv.com/tc/2377598
It looks as if the coup failed completely. Hundreds of soldiers arrested; to be “harshly punished.” It couldn’t have ended better for Erdogan if he had known about it in advance and let it happen, so he could further purge the military of all opposition.
Not that another country in the Middle East plunged into civil war after a regime change would have been a good outcome either.
Wouldn’t bother me to see Erdogan overthrown. He’s become a power-hungry autocrat.