Who will win? Place your bets.

Nobody for $10.

May they find democracy.

Rumors that oil prices are rising, so maybe the winner will be Nicolas Maduro

Turkey has gone into Civil Disorder. Will the UN allow someone to take over without spending any points?

I would than accuse France and Germany for Multi, but they will loose anyway.

Russia's opening for a solo.

Bo is FOR military coups? lol Good lord, the "everyone is wonderful just as they are" idealist thinks that some people need to die at the point of a gun? lolololololol.....about fucking time.

I dont quite understand what is happening in the world.

I'm not for military rule, but I'm for personal freedom and against censorship - two places where President Erdogan and I happen to disagree. I'm also all for letting Russia deal with its own problems, so I hope the US stays out of this and lets Putin invade Ukraine and/or some random surrounding territory again to the detriment of his own economy.

Let me give you the Cliffnotes version.

Turkey has a long history with its army. Starting with Rebellions by young officers in the army against the Ottomans, led bu Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the army has viewed itself as the defender of Atatürk's Turkey.

Fast forward after Atatürk's death, and the army does a coup every decade or so to keep the country on the track it likes and remain some modicum of power. The latest one was 1997, when they never took charge, but forced the Islamist government to resign and forced the disbandment of an Islamist political party that Erdogan was a part of.

2002, Erdogan is elected prime minister for the Islamist AKP. He immediately takes steps to purge the military, culminating in the Ergenekon case which saw the arrest of hundreds of top military officials.

Later we saw the Sledgehammer (?) cases which imprisoned scores of secular politicians.

Most recently, we have seen the exposure of a corruption scandal revolving around his administration immediately followed up by a purging of the police force and judiciary. This was December 2014, I think? Much of the civil service was filled by Gulenists - people who follow the a preacher who is in exile in the US. He runs a system of religious schools in Turkey and was a former ally of Erdogan back in 2002. They had a falling out and became opponents, and Erdogan has been blaming everything going wrong in Turkey on them.

While all this is going on, Erdogan is slowly destroying the freedom of the press via lawsuits, secret police raids and forced takeovers of newspapers. The last main opposition paper was coerced into a pro-government paper sometime this year

Finally, with his party failing to win the elections last year and refusing to form a coalition, Erdogan provokes and renews the fight against the Kurds to gain popularity. He calls snap elections and surprise surprise, wins a majority. One of his first actions? Wanting to start the process of transitioning from a parliamentary system to a presidential system. As President, his role is largely ceremonial, but he bullied his Prime Minister around so much that he was forced to resign. Think of Medvedev with Putin, but with less power.

Basically, he is a corrupt, ruthless, Islamist ruler who is bent on destroying the secular systems in place in Turkey, and is willing to destabilize the entire region in order to cement his position on top, and Turkey's position as the leader of the region.

As Bo said...about fuckin time

okay. yea fuck this dude.

^

The region is unstable enough. This is going to make things that much more interesting.

Fuck Erdogan, but also fuck this half-assed coup attempt which will only have the opposite of the desired effect.

looks like it failed.

Yeah, I'm with Lethologica.

A failed coup is a worse action than no coup. Seriously, how can you not get all branches of the military in on it?

Seems like they simply tried to kill Erdogan and take over by shock factor as opposed to overthrowing him by total force and unity within the military and police.

Also why even make this attempt when Erdogan wasn't even in the country? Reports say he was vacationing. This makes no sense.

I hated the movie Eragon this dude needs to die.

He was on the Black Sea, ND. Still in Turkey, just out of town.

idk what is going on, but it sounds like the coup is failing and the people are rushing to the president's side. Just so long as isis doesn't gain influence in Turkey, I'm good.
Also its Erdogan not Eragon brainbomb

Black Sea is a big area. Was he on the Turkey side? I wasn't clear about that Bo.

He was in Masmaris, that's in Turkey.

okay

Erdogan is the people's choice. A coup can't happen without the people's support.

"Bo is FOR military coups?"

Bo is for military coups and rebellions against any governments that aren't sufficiently pro-Israel. Whether that is intentional on his part is an interesting question.

"Basically, he is a corrupt, ruthless, Islamist ruler who is bent on destroying the secular systems in place in Turkey, and is willing to destabilize the entire region in order to cement his position on top, and Turkey's position as the leader of the region."

I'm curious, goldfinger - knowing the army's propensity for coups and knowing he's none too popular with foreign governments that love to fund and support coups to topple governments they don't like, should Erdogan have just sat back and let plotters plot to overthrow his democratically elected government? Are you saying he should be playing fair with people who would not hesitate to use unfair and illegal means to overthrow him and probably execute him and his family?

"A coup can't happen without the people's support."

History is most definitely not in support of this statement.

Yes, as a Jew who has been sufficiently run out of his own synagogue for advocating against Israeli incursion in the West Bank and for Palestinian independence, I spend my entire life caring about nothing but the fate of a genocidal, hateful coalition government at the head of a nation we call Israel. Sensible statement, Tolstoy.