by Robert Whitcomb | Jul 19, 2016 | News
New details are emerging that show how close the Turkish coup came to success. Contrary to what has already become the conventional wisdom, the attempt was very well organized. But the plotters had some bad luck.
One observer said that the coup started to fail when the president, the prime minister and high-level army commanders went on the air and declared their support for the democratically elected government and called on citizens to go into the streets to block pro-coup troops.
To read The Guardian story on this, please hit this link.
by Robert Whitcomb | Jul 18, 2016 | News
In a plea that’s unlikely to be respected by Turkey’s increasingly dictatorial president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, European politicians and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry have called on Turkey to respect the rule of law amid a purge of state institutions in the aftermath of the botched coup.
Mr. Kerry told a news government: “We …urge the government of Turkey to uphold the highest standards of respect for the nation’s democratic institutions and the rule of law. We will certainly support bringing the perpetrators of the coup to justice but we also caution against a reach that goes well beyond that.”
As Turkish authorities consider restoring the death penalty for those either in the coup or simply those whom Mr. Erdogan deems political enemies, the E.U. has warned that for Turkey to restore the death penalty would doom its {already probably doomed attempts} to join the E.U. Turkey’s increasingly authoritarian government and Islamist tendencies make it an unlikely member of a group of open, secular democracies.
To read a Guardian article on this, please hit this link.
