Turkey 85 generals, admirals charged in coup attempt

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Turkey 85 generals, admirals charged in coup attempt

Updated 4:25 am, Tuesday, July 19, 2016

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey's state-run news agency said Tuesday that courts have ordered 85 generals and admirals jailed pending trial over their roles in a failed coup attempt. Dozens of others were still being questioned.

Anadolu Agency said those formally arrested include former air force commander Gen. Akin Ozturk, alleged to be the ringleader of the July 15 uprising, and Gen. Adem Hududi, commander of Turkey's 2nd Army, which is charge of countering possible threats to Turkey from Syria, Iran and Iraq.

Ozturk has denied the allegation, saying he neither planned nor directed the coup, according to Anadolu.

Authorities have rounded up thousands alleged to have been involved in the coup, which killed 208 government supporters and 24 coup plotters. The government says a U.S.-based Muslim cleric was behind the coup. Thousands of officials suspected of links to him were purged from the judiciary and the Interior Ministry.

Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/world/article/Turkey-85-generals-admirals-charged-in-coup-8385994.php

[PatrickforO]

1. There's some folks we probably won't ever hear from again.

We have to be careful this Muslim cleric here in the USA isn't another Ayatollah Khomeini. If we let him gain power and then this keeps happening, one day Turkey will cease to be a sane ally and will become a virulently anti-west Islamic state.

[Statistical]

12. Huh? As opposed to the current President of Turkey?

[bemildred]

2. Turkey PM vows to purge Gulen movement 'by the roots'

The Turkish Prime Minister, Binali Yildirim, has vowed to purge supporters of an exiled cleric "by the roots" in the aftermath of the failed coup.

He said he had sent the US evidence of Fethullah Gulen's criminal activities - allegations the cleric denies - in support of an extradition bid.

Mr Yildirim insisted that his country was governed by the rule of law.

Thousands of soldiers, police and officials have been detained or sacked since Friday's coup attempt.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36833972

[bemildred]

5. Turkish watchdog RTÜK cancel licences of radio and TV stations linked to Gülen

Turkey's broadcasting watchdog on Tuesday canceled licences of all radio and television stations determined to have links with the Gülenist Terror Organization, whose members are accused of staging the failed coup on July 15.

The Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK) said in a statement on its website it took the decision at an extraordinary meeting convened following the failed attempt to overthrow the democratically elected president and the government.

The decision was taken unanimously by the members of RTÜK's higher board, which are elected by the parliament allocated in accordance with the political party seats.

208 people, consisting of mostly civilians, have been killed by pro-coup soldiers, while over 1,400 people were injured. Turkey's opposition parties have united against the coup attempt, condemning it in the harshest terms and underscoring their determination to preserve democracy and rule of law in Turkey.

http://www.dailysabah.com/war-on-terror/2016/07/19/turkish-watchdog-rtuk-cancel-licences-of-radio-and-tv-stations-linked-to-gulen

[bemildred]

3. The fizzled Turkish military coup: Three days later

ISTANBUL–Three days after Turkey’s short-lived late evening putsch last Friday, the country is reeling from its aftermath as the government arrests its opponents in the armed forces, judiciary, police, and civil service by the thousands.

Around 3,000 army officers (including 34 generals) have been detained. The judiciary and especially the Supreme Courts and the Constitutional Court have also seen a similar number of detainees — nearly one in three of the judges in Turkey’s Supreme Court of Appeals. Though the police force remained loyal to the government and lost more than 40 lives in clashes during the attempted take-over, 8,777 police officers have been reassigned and about 148 detained.

The courts have begun hearing cases and have already charged three of Turkey’s most senior generals with treason, including the two top generals fighting the Kurdish insurgency the southeast, General Adem Huduti, commander of the Second Army who has presided over curfew operations clearing out Kurdish militants in the region’s main town and Major General Avni Angun, in charge of operations to the north. A former Air Force Commander, General Akin Ozturk, has also been charged. Across Turkey it seems that more than half of the military’s garrison commanders are being held and about one-third of the country’s brigadiers.

There are reports of suspensions in other parts of the civil service, with all public employees under orders to return from their holidays and present themselves at their post.

http://atimes.com/2016/07/turkeys-fizzled-coup-three-days-later/

[bemildred]

4. 14 Turkey navy ships ‘missing’ at sea since foiled coup

Some 14 Turkish military ships on active duty in the Aegean and Black Seas are reportedly “missing”, according to reports.

It is assumed that their captains do not wish to return to port, either because they supported the coup, or fear the ongoing purges in their country.

Some media reports have speculated that the ships may be on their way to Greek ports where the sailors will attempt to seek asylum. It is unclear how many ships are in the Black Sea and their respective number in the Aegean.

If the ships are stranded in the Black Sea, their captains have little choice but to apply for asylum in NATO members Bulgaria and Romania, or in prospective NATO members Ukraine and Georgia, or in Russia.

http://www.euractiv.com/section/global-europe/news/14-turkey-navy-ships-missing-at-sea-since-foiled-coup/

[bemildred]

6. Even before coup attempt, Turkey was unravelling

We live in an era when geopolitical shocks have an increasing capacity to alter the economic and financial state of the world.

You might say it was ever thus, but the rapidity with which events in the political world determine our view of the economic environment seems to be accelerating, and becoming more interconnected.

---

And with Turkey at the crossroads of Eurasia, straddling crucial energy supply routes, and in perhaps the most sensitive geopolitical region in the world, the potential for regional and global dislocation is significant.

Mr Erdogan could head off all this risk immediately by declaring an amnesty, halting the purges and arrests, and committing himself to rebuilding Turkish unity. But that does not look a likely scenario.

http://www.thenational.ae/business/economy/even-before-coup-attempt-turkey-was-unravelling

[bemildred]

7. . nt

[jakeXT]

8. Turkey sacks 15,000 officials in Ministry of Education

The Turkish government has sacked 15,200 members of its Ministry of Education, in the latest mass purge of officials following a failed coup attempt on Friday.

Ankara’s ministry of education confirmed the sackings on its Twitter account on Tuesday, with most expected to be teachers suspended in connection with the botched putsch, reports David O’Byrne in Istanbul.

Turkey’s country’s higher education council has also “invited” 1,577 university deans to resign as the government escalates its crackdown on any suspected insurrectionist elements within the state machinery.

The purge of education officials comes after Ankara has arrested, sacked or suspended thousands of military, judiciary and ministry personnel on suspicion of involvement in the coup, or connections with those alleged to have organised it.

https://next.ft.com/content/9d6479d1-099a-32c2-a5c7-16b3cfd955d4

[bemildred]

9. Wow. Stalin would be impressed. This is getting Bremer-like.

"A clean slate."

Never mind who dirtied up the slate in the first place.

[jakeXT]

10. + 21,000 private school teachers

It didn't stop there, and as Turkey's Ysafak reports, the country has just canceled the license of some 21,000 private school teachers.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-07-19/erdogan-unleashes-unprecedented-crackdown-fires-all-university-deans-suspends-21000-

[bemildred]

13. So old school, going after the intelligentsia.

Who is the terrorist now?

[Ford_Prefect]

11. "Round up the usual suspects" seems quite fitting here. It's beginning to look a lot like Egypt.

[bemildred]

14. Al Sisi seems like an excellent analogy right now.

Echoes of Iran '79 too. It is going to be informative to see where he tries to take this, if he has a plan at all other than hanging onto power in the tried and true Middle Eastern way.

[bemildred]

15. Turkey's government fears second coup attempt as purge removes many army commanders

Turkish leaders are fearful that there may be a second attempt at a military uprising in Turkey following the failure of the recent coup. Several important military units are confined to their bases and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been slow to return to Ankara from Istanbul, apparently because the capital has not been deemed completely secure.

Fears of a second coup attempt stem from the realisation by the Erdogan administration that the infiltration by pro-coup forces of the senior ranks of the 600,000-strong armed forces and intelligence apparatus went far deeper than originally suspected. Some 85 generals and admirals or almost a quarter of the total of 375 were jailed on Tuesday by a court, a sign that the government privately believes that the plot involved many more senior officers than the small clique it has publicly claimed was behind the abortive putsch. Other sources suggest that the true figure for generals detained is 125.

Arrests at a high level are continuing with Mr Edrogan’s advisor on the air force, Lt Col Erkan Krivak, arrested on Tuesday. Soldiers from the Second Army, which is fighting a widespread Kurdish rebellion in the south east of the country, have been ordered to stay in their camps in the embattled region. The Second Army commander, General Adem Huduti, is the most senior military commander arrested. The gates into the main base of the 3rd Corps in Istanbul, theoretically part a Nato rapid reaction force, are blocked by municipal dump trucks and heavy vehicles according to eye witnesses.

“They are fearing another attempt at a coup,” says Asli Aydintasbas of the European Council on Foreign Relations in Istanbul, pointing to the extensive nature of the purge of the senior officer corps and judiciary, a quarter of whose members have been dismissed. Those arrested for secretly backing the original coup include some from Mr Erdogan’s inner circle such as Ali Yazici, his military secretary. Soli Ozel, professor of internationals relations at Kadir Has University in Istanbul and a columnist at Haberturk newspaper, says that “the number of Manchurian Candidates” in the upper ranks of the government is extraordinary – a reference to the film about secret agents and “sleepers” who infiltrated the top political leadership in the US in the 1950s at the height of the Cold War.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/turkey-second-coup-attempt-president-erdogan-military-failure-latest-news-a7145266.html