Coup coming in Turkey?
The mass arrest of Turkish army officers last week may leave the Turkish army with no choice but to engage in a coup if they wish to prevent Turkey from becoming an Islamic state according to analyst Daniel Pipes. The AKP devised an elaborate conspiracy theory in 2007, dubbed “Ergenekon,” to arrest about two hundred AKP critics, including military officers, under accusation of plotting to overthrow the elected government. The military responded passively, so the AKP raised the stakes on January 22 by concocting a second conspiracy theory, this one termed “Balyoz” (“Sledgehammer”) and exclusively directed against the military.Pipes argues that which way Turkey goes has implications for other Muslim countries as well. Read the whole thing.
The military denied any illegal activities and the chief of general staff, İlker Başbuğ, warned that “our patience has a limit.” Nonetheless, the government proceeded, starting on February 22, to arrest 67 active and retired military officers, including former heads of the air force and navy. So far, 35 officers have been indicted.
Thus has the AKP thrown down the gauntlet, leaving the military leadership basically with two unattractive options: (1) continue selectively to acquiesce to the AKP and hope that fair elections by 2011 will terminate and reverse this process; or (2) stage a coup d’état, risking voter backlash and increased Islamist electoral strength.
At stake is whether the Ergenekon/Balyoz offensives will succeed in transforming the military from an Ataturkist to a Gülenist institution; or whether the AKP’s blatant deceit and over-reaching will spur secularists to find their voice and their confidence. Ultimately the issue is whether sharia will rule Turkey or the country will return to secularism.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:33 PM
1 Comments:
Wow! This is very disturbing, indeed. But where's the leadership of the world's leaders?
Certainly, in the good ole US of A we have a godling as president, who is quite good at navel gazing, so he's no help.
When Iranians were being murdered by their own government on the streets of Teheran, all you could get out of Obumbler was that he was, "concerned." G-d forbid it happens, but if it does, I wonder what blood flowing in the streets of Instanbul will elicit from the godling?
As long as world leaders refuse to see that the conflict with fundamentalist Islam is religious/ideological and not a questions of "economic justice," or some other excuse, the dominoes will keep falling.
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