Erdogan declares state of emergency

[dunksby]

Now he can bypass the parliament and pass laws on his own:

Erdogan said the state of emergency, lasting three months, would allow his government to take swift and decisive measures against supporters of the coup and was allowed under the constitution.

Emergency rule, which would take effect after it is published in Turkey's official gazette, would allow the president and cabinet to bypass parliament in passing new laws and to limit or suspend rights and freedoms as they deem necessary.

Erdogan made the announcement during a live television broadcast in front of his government ministers after a nearly five-hour meeting of the National Security Council.

"The aim of the declaration of the state of emergency is to be able to take fast and effective steps against this threat against democracy, the rule of law and rights and freedoms of our citizens," Erdogan said.

He also pointedly rebuffed criticism from Western governments that have accused him of going too far in efforts to neutralize suspected opponents. About 60,000 soldiers, police, judges, civil servants and teachers have been suspended, detained or are under investigation since Friday's military coup attempt.

The failed putsch and the purge that followed have unsettled the country of 80 million, a NATO member bordering Syria, Iraq and Iran and Western ally in the fight against Islamic State.

Before announcing the state of emergency, Erdogan said the sweep was not yet over and that he believed foreign countries might have been involved in the attempt to overthrow him.

Speaking through an interpreter in an interview with broadcaster Al Jazeera, Erdogan dismissed suggestions that he was becoming authoritarian and that Turkish democracy was under threat.

"We will remain within a democratic parliamentary system. We will never step away from it," he said.

Academics were banned from traveling abroad on Wednesday in what a Turkish official said was a temporary measure to prevent the risk of alleged coup plotters at universities from fleeing. TRT state television said 95 academics had been removed from their posts at Istanbul University alone.

Erdogan blames a network of followers of an exiled U.S.-based cleric, Fethullah Gulen, for Friday night's attempted coup, in which more than 230 people were killed and hundreds more wounded as soldiers commandeered fighter jets, military helicopters and tanks in a failed effort to overthrow the government.

Erdogan, an Islamist who has led Turkey as prime minister or president since 2003, has vowed to clean the "virus" responsible for the plot from all state institutions.

All hail the Islamist Attaturk.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-tu...-idUSKCN0ZX07S

[StephHamann]

[Nick Young]

A Muslim Hitler has potential to eclipse regular Hitler.


Someone needs to stop him early before it's too late.

[StephHamann]

History repeats itself, they will get crushed by based Russia like Nazi Germany.

[Nick Young]

Make Constantinople Christian again.

[StephHamann]

If he goes the Hitler route, they will start burning books soon.

[Dresta]

It was obvious this would happen. I can't believe the media portrayed the failure of the coup as some kind of democratic victory (a demonstration of people power), when the defanging of the Turkish military is what has ended any real vestige of the things about democracy that matter (the rule of law, freedom from arbitrary imprisonment, free press, and so forth). The military has always been the guarantor of the rights of the secularists and democrats in Turkey; now, there is no check whatsoever on Erdogan's power and ambition.

The childish obsession (of western nations) with the concept of democracy has to stop: it blinds people to historical reality. How people can see Islamist fanatics in country after country after country, and not recognise what they are seeing, just because it is claimed as democracy (something everyone pays lip-service to today, so much so that the word is redundant) is quite incredible. They didn't recognise what they were dealing with in Egypt, Libya, Syria, now Turkey, until it was far too late. The EU is completely culpable in this: they have naively been manipulated by Erdogan for years, thinking they could westernise Turkey by doing whatever Erdogan wanted, and giving his regime international legitimacy (legitimacy he used to purge the military, and cement his rule, several times already). This is a guy who had more journalists in prison than any other country, and yet was still partaking in "Accession talks" and being treated like a friend, while he was aiding and enabling the terrorists in Syria. But now, when they suggest reintroducing the death penalty, now the EU grows some balls and puts its foot down--it's downright pathetic. I mean, it's not that difficult to tell what this is, is it?:



When Erdogan is described to have "neo-Ottoman" ambitions? When it was the mosques that co-ordinated the opposition to the coup...

Turkey is f*cked now: the country is so divided I think civil war is a possibility if Erdogan's power isn't already total; if you saw a recent poll of Turks, 40% take the regime line regarding the coup, that it was a Gulenist plot, but 33% believe the regime itself was behind the coup--those are really worrying numbers. And here are the purge numbers:

[NumberSix]

"democratically elected"

[Dresta]

"democratically elected"

Unbelievably, the mere process of voting does not solve all problems, although that seems to be the general attitude of neocon fanatics.

It's funny to see the same people who were saying "democrats come out to defend democracy from military" in the immediate aftermath of the coup, now going: "Erdogan now persecuting democrats who stood against coup." This is an absurdity because it was obvious, to anyone who knew anything about Erdogan, that this is what would happen (and so it's pretty obvious that this coup was the last chance for their beloved democrats, who are now being turned out en masse).

The prism of "democracy" explains all things to these people--they are fanatic.

[brownmamba00]

anyone who believes this was done by fethullah gulen, an exiled imam, and his followers is a goddamn moron.

[senelcoolidge]

Is Putin really as bad as most people make him out to be? Just wondering. I'm no Putin/Russia expert. Trump seems to want to work with him or at least talk...Clinton and many others vilify him with no regard. ISH experts please educate us. Maybe I'm an idiot for thinking that Russia could be an important ally.

[NumberSix]

Unbelievably, the mere process of voting does not solve all problems, although that seems to be the general attitude of neocon fanatics.

It's funny to see the same people who were saying "democrats come out to defend democracy from military" in the immediate aftermath of the coup, now going: "Erdogan now persecuting democrats who stood against coup." This is an absurdity because it was obvious, to anyone who knew anything about Erdogan, that this is what would happen (and so it's pretty obvious that this coup was the last chance for their beloved democrats, who are now being turned out en masse).

The prism of "democracy" explains all things to these people--they are fanatic.

What "democracy" are they even talking about? This guy bans opposing parties, bans opposing politicians, jails journalists who write critically of him, on Election Day he cuts the power in areas that will vote against his party, etc...

The guy is a complete totalitarian dictator. He's not "democratically elected".

[Nick Young]

He is re-enacting Hitler's rise to power play by play and no one is doing jack shit to stop it.

Obama better be working on a deal right now with the other NATO nations to boot Turkey out.

We are going to see death camps soon.


"Never again" my ass

[Dresta]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/wo...a7154091.html#

Reports of torture and abuse. I remember this image of the leaders of the coup was released a day or so after it, and it looked to me like they'd been tortured (they'd definitely been roughed up at least a little):

[Nick Young]

Is Putin really as bad as most people make him out to be? Just wondering. I'm no Putin/Russia expert. Trump seems to want to work with him or at least talk...Clinton and many others vilify him with no regard. ISH experts please educate us. Maybe I'm an idiot for thinking that Russia could be an important ally.

No. Most of it is western propaganda.

90% of the Russian people support Putin.