Erdogan taunts Obama over coup attempt in Turkey (Implications with Russia, Syria, and Iran)

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Erdogan taunts Obama over coup attempt in Turkey
BY M.K. BHADRAKUMAR on JULY 17, 2016 in AT TOP WRITERS, M.K. BHADRAKUMAR

The Turkish President Recep Erdogan’s sensational demand on Saturday to US President Barack Obama to extradite the Islamist preacher Fetullah Gulen living in exile in Pennsylvania does not come as surprise. It had to happen sooner or later.


Turkish President Recep Erdogan told his supporters on Saturday that although he had shared with Barack Obama the intelligence on a likely coup attempt by Gulen’s followers, the US President sat on it.

But then, Erdogan has chosen to speak publicly on such a highly sensitive issue instead of using the confidential channels of communication.

Any long-time observer of Erdogan and his political personality can make out that he is taunting Obama within the week of the NATO summit in Warsaw. These are excerpts from Erdogan’s public remarks in Istanbul on Saturday:

  • Please meet our request (on Gulen’s extradition) if we (Turkey and US) are strategic partners. I asked you (Obama) previously either to deport him or surrender him to Turkey. I told you that he is considering the coup d’etat, but you didn’t listen.
The crowd listening to Erdogan began chanting, “Death to Fetullah.”

To be sure, Erdogan knows how to work up the crowd. And he knows that if the mood turns ugly in Turkish-American relations, his strength lies in his massive support base.

This is becoming very personal, too. Erdogan mentioned Obama by name. It is an open secret that the chemistry between the two statesmen has been poor.

Erdogan will not forgive the Obama administration for leading him up the garden path on Syria, convincing him that Washington was leaving no stone unturned to overthrow the Assad regime. The then CIA Director David Petraeus visited Turkey more than once to urge Erdogan to kickstart the intervention in Syria.

Obama himself lauded Turkey as a role model for the Muslim Middle East, pandering to Erdogan’s notions of his own tryst with destiny in the erstwhile territories of the Ottoman Empire.

Thus, Erdogan’s stunning disclosure on Saturday that he had shared with Obama the intelligence on a likely coup attempt by Gulen’s followers and that the US president sat on it can only mean that the Turkish leader suspects Washington’s intentions toward him.

Erdogan would know there isn’t a ghost of a chance that the US will extradite Gulen. No country’s intelligence would simply surrender such a “strategic asset.” Gulen’s version of political Islam had seamless uses for the US regional strategies in many parts of the world, especially in the former Soviet republics of Central Asia, which constitute Russia’s “soft underbelly.”

Suffice it to say, Erdogan is preparing for a period of deep chill in Turkish-American relations. These are early days, but the move to cut off power supply to the Incirlik base where the US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq is based, may convey some hidden meaning.

Most certainly, the US forces have installed top-notch electronic systems in Incirlik to eavesdrop on communication. The Turkish intelligence would be wondering whether the US privy to the coup. This is one thing.

The timing of the coup is extremely significant. It comes after the setback to the US plans to push for a permanent NATO presence in the Black Sea, challenging Russia’s historical pre-eminence in those waters, aimed at encircling the Russian naval fleet in Sevastopol and threatening Crimea.

The Montreaux Convention (1936) forbids permanent naval presence in the region by non-Black Sea countries and gives Turkey control over the Bosporus Straits and the Dardanelles Straits. Plainly put, without Turkey’s cooperation, the US stratagem to encircle Russia in the Black Sea (and Mediterranean) becomes a non-starter.

Erdogan’s decision to render an apology for the shooting down of a Russian jet last November also took everyone by surprise, including Washington. The acceleration of the Turkish-Russian normalization would have unnerved Washington.

It heralded that in one sweep, the co-relation of forces in the West’s standoff with Russia might change once the Turkish-Russian rapprochement gathered pace. Erdogan and Putin are likely to meet in a near future, too.

It cannot at all be ruled out that the Russian intelligence tipped off the Turkish counterparts on the likelihood of a coup. Russian intelligence has traditionally kept a strong presence in Turkey.

Against the backdrop of the intervention in Syria, Russia also must be maintaining highly sophisticated electronic communication gear airbase in the Hmeimim airbase.

What must be noted is that the Russian reportage of the coup in Turkey was unabashedly ‘pro-Erdogan’. In a manner of speaking, Russia has become a stakeholder in Erdogan’s continuance in power – although Turkey is a NATO power.

Most certainly, the coup itself appears to have been hastily assembled, and was predicated on hopes, perhaps, that it would draw large-scale support from within the army. It probably hoped to capitalize on the officers with ‘pro-Islamist’ leanings who were inducted into the officer corps of the army by Erdogan following the great purge of ‘Kemalists’ during the recent years.

Arguably, Erdogan was aware that the newly-inducted military cadres also included Gulen’s followers, and a further purge would become necessary at some point. Curiously, Erdogan was due to take the crucial annual meeting of the Military Council in Ankara next month to decide on the promotion and transfers of top ranking officers.

Here we run into a paradox.

The fact of the matter is that the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) also has elements, including at the leadership level, who empathize with Gulen and his version of political Islam.

Simply put, if the coup had succeeded, it would have essentially led to a ‘Gulenist’ takeover of the AKP itself.

The bottom line is that even if the coup had succeeded, it wouldn’t have made the least difference to Turkey’s historic lurch toward political Islam.

Again, what needs to be factored in is that Gulen has enjoyed cordial equations with Saudi Arabia. “Green money” has played a big part in the AKP’s ascendancy. The so-called “Anatolian tigers” – business elites from Anatolian region – who financed the AKP have been major beneficiaries of “green money.”

Of course, Saudis have kept their dealings with Gulen under the wraps, and it remains to be seen what impact the failed coup attempt would have on Erdogan’s uneasy equations with the Saudi regime.

The Saudis have been watching with unease the nascent signs of shift in Erdogan’s interventionist policies in Syria. (By the way, Iran’s Fars news agency, which is close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, reported Saturday that Turkish intelligence officers deployed in Aleppo in Syria have begun evacuating on instructions from Ankara, signalling disengagement from the rebel groups fighting the government forces in that region.)

Thus, it is not without significance that the Iranian statements on the coup attempt in Turkey have been strongly supportive of Erdogan. Without doubt, one can hear a sigh of relief in the corridors of power in Tehran.

Ali Shamkhani, secretary of Iran’s National Security Council, made a hugely meaningful remark on Saturday that both Tehran’s vehement condemnation of the coup attempt in Turkey and the role that Iran itself plays in Syria fundamentally stem from the same considerations.

Ambassador MK Bhadrakumar served as a career diplomat in the Indian Foreign Service for over 29 years, with postings including India’s ambassador to Uzbekistan (1995-1998) and to Turkey (1998-2001). He writes the “Indian Punchline” blog and has written regularly for Asia Times since 2001.

(Copyright 2016 Asia Times Holdings Limited, a duly registered Hong Kong company. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)

Erdogan taunts Obama over coup attempt in Turkey
 

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@Ill

Turkey and Russia are about to make nice. This is a big blow to NATO's goals last week.

Turkish intelligence officers leaving Syria and the rebels in Aleppo by themselves means that the Syrian government is going to be happy too. I've also read "Assad must go" might be dropped from the current Turkish government.
 

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Hell Hath No Fury Like a Teflon Sultan

When Turkish President/aspiring Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan landed at Istanbul’s Ataturk airport early Saturday morning, he declared the attempted coup against his government a failure, and a “gift from God.”


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© AFP 2016/ STR / TURKISH PRESIDENTIAL PRESS OFFICE
Erdogan Blames Gulenist Network, Calls on Public to Fight Against Coup in Public Squares

God apparently uses Face Time. It was via that iconic iPhone footage from an undisclosed location shown live on CNN Turk by a bewildered female anchor that Erdogan managed to call his legion of followers to hit the streets, unleash People Power and defeat the military faction that had taken over state TV and proclaimed to be in charge.

So God does work in mysterious mobile ways. Erdogan’s call was heeded even by young Turks who had fiercely protested against him in Gezi Park; were tear-gassed or water-cannoned by his police; think the AKP governing party is disgusting; but would support them against a “fascist military coup.” Not to mention that virtually every mosque across Turkey relayed Erdogan’s call.

Ankara’s official version is that the coup was perpetrated by a small military faction remote-controlled by exiled-in-Pennsylvania cleric Fethullah Gulen, himself a CIA asset. As much as responsibility remains debatable, what’s clear is the coup was a Turk remix of The Three Stooges; the actual stooges in fact may have been the already detained 2nd Army Commander Gen. Adem Huduti; 3rd Army Commander Erdal Ozturk; and former Chief of Air Staff Akin Ozturk.

As over-excited former CIA ops were blaring on US networks – and they do know a thing or two about regime change — rule number one in a coup is to aim at, and isolate, the head of the snake. Yet the wily Turkish snake, in this case, was nowhere to be seen. Not to mention that no top generals sounding convincingly patriotic went on the TRT state network to fully explain the reasons for the coup.

(Erdogan) love is in the air


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© REUTERS/ MURAD SEZER

The coup plotters did aim at the intel services – whose top positions are at Istanbul’s airport, the presidential palace in Ankara and near the ministries. They used Cobra helicopters – with pilots trained in the US – against these targets. They also aimed at the army’s high command – which for the past 8 years is designated by Erdogan and is not trusted by many a mid-ranking officer.

As they occupied the Bosphorus bridges in Istanbul they seemed to be in touch with military police – which is spread out all over Turkey and have a solid esprit de corps. But in the end they did not have the numbers – and the necessary preparation. All key ministries seemed to be communicating among themselves as the plot developed, as well as the intel services. And as far as Turkish police as a whole is concerned, they are now a sort of AKP pretorian guard.

Meanwhile, Erdogan’s Gulfstream 4, flight number TK8456, took off from Bodrum’s airport at 1:43 A.M. and flew for hours over Turkey’s northwest with its transponder on, undisturbed. It was from the presidential plane, while still landed, that Erdogan had gone on Face Time, and then, on the air, managed to control the countercoup. The plane never left Turkish airspace – and was totally visible to civil and military radars. The coup plotters’ F-16s could have easily tracked and/or incinerated it. Instead they sent military choppers to bomb the presidential abode in Bodrum a long time after he had left the building.

The head of the snake must have been 100% sure that to board his plane and stay on Turkish airspace was as safe as eating a baklava. What’s even more startling is that the Gulfstream managed to land in Istanbul in absolute safety in the early hours of Saturday morning – despite the prevailing notion that the airport was occupied by the “rebels”.

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© AP PHOTO/ EMRAH GUREL
In Ankara, the “rebels” used a mechanized division and two commandos. Around Istanbul there was a whole army; the 3rd command is actually integrated with NATO’s rapid reaction forces. They supplied the Leopards positioned in Istanbul’s key spots – which by the way did not open fire.

And yet the two key armies positioned in the Syrian and Iranian borders remained on “wait and see” mode. And then, at 2 A.M., the command of the also key 7th army based in Diyarbakir – in charge of fighting the PKK guerrillas – proclaimed his loyalty to Erdogan. That was the exact, crucial moment when Prime Minister Binali Yildırım announced a no-fly zone over Ankara.

That meant Erdogan controlled the skies. And the game was over. History does move in mysterious ways; the no-fly zone dreamed by Erdogan for so long over Aleppo or the Syrian-Turkish border in the end materialized over his own capital.

Round up the usual suspects

The US position was extremely ambiguous from the start. As the coup took over, the American embassy in Turkey called it "Turkish uprising". Secretary of State John Kerry, in Moscow to discuss Syria, also hedged his bets. NATO was royally mute. Only when it became clear the coup was in fact smashed President Obama and the “NATO allies” officially proclaimed their “support for the democratically elected government”.

The Sultan went back to the game with a vengeance. He immediately went live on CNN Turk demanding Washington hands over Gulen even without any evidence he masterminded the coup. And that came with an inbuilt threat; “If you want to keep access to Incirlik air base you will have to give me Gulen”. It’s hard not to be reminded of recent history – when the Cheney regime in 2001 demanded the Taliban hand Osama bin Laden over to the US without offering proof he was responsible for 9/11.


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© REUTERS/ REUTERS
Kerry Blasts Turkey for Insinuating that Washington Plotted Coup of Erdogan

So the number one eyebrow-raising possibility is a go; Erdogan’s intel services knew a coup was brewing; and the wily Sultan let it happen knowing it would fail as the plotters had very limited support. He also arguably knew – in advance — even the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), whose members Erdogan is trying to expel from parliament, would support the government in the name of democracy.

Two extra facts add to the credibility of this hypothesis. Earlier last week Erdogan signed a bill giving soldiers immunity from prosecution while taking part in domestic security ops – as in anti-PKK; that spells out improved relations between the AKP government and the army. And then Turkey’s top judicial body HSYK laid off no less than 2,745 judges after an extraordinary meeting post-coup. This can only mean the list was more than ready in advance.


The major, immediate post-coup geopolitical consequence is that Erdogan now seems to have miraculously reconquered his “strategic depth” – as former, sidelined Prime Minister Davutoglu would have it. Not only externally – after the miserable collapse of both his Middle East and Kurdish “policies” – but also internally. For all practical purposes Erdogan now controls the Executive, the Legislative and the Judiciary – and is taking no prisoners to purge the military for good. Ladies and gentlemen, the Sultan is in da house.

This means the neo-Ottoman project is still on – but now under massive tactical reorientation. The real “enemy” now is Syrian Kurds – not Russia and Israel (and not ISIS/ISIL/Daesh; but they never were in the first place). Erdogan is going after the YPG, which for him is a mere extension of the PKK. His order of the day is to prevent by all means an autonomous state entity in northeast Syria – a "Kurdistan" set up like a second Israel supported by the US. For that he needs some sort of entente cordiale with Damascus – as in insisting that Syria must preserve its territorial integrity. And that also means, of course, renewed dialogue with Russia.


So what's the CIA been up to?

Needless to add Ankara and Washington are now on a certified collision course. If there is an Empire of Chaos hidden hand in the coup – no smoking gun yet — that certainly comes from the Beltway neocon/CIA axis, not the lame duck Obama administration. For the moment Erdogan’s leverage only amounts to access to Incirlik. But his paranoia is ballooning; for him Washington is doubly suspicious because they harbor Gulen and support the YPG.

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© AP PHOTO/ ANDREW HARNIK
Turkey Normalizing Ties With Russia, Israel to Benefit Entire Region - FM

Hell hath no fury as an underestimated Sultan as well. For all his recent geopolitical follies, Erdogan’s simultaneous ballet of reconnecting with Israel and Russia is eminently pragmatic. He knows he needs Russia for the Turkish Stream and to build nuclear plants; and he needs Israeli gas to consolidate Turkey’s role as a key East-West energy crossroads.

When we learn, crucially, that Iran supported Turkey's "brave defense of democracy", as tweeted by Foreign Minister Zarif, it’s clear how Erdogan, in a mater of only a few weeks, reconfigured the whole regional picture. And that spells out Eurasia integration and Turkey deeply connected to the New Silk Roads – not NATO. No wonder the Beltway – for whom, overwhelmingly, Erdogan is the proverbial “erratic and unreliable ally” — is freaking out. That dream of Turkish colonels under direct CIA orders is over – at least for the foreseeable future.


So what about Europe? Yildirim already said that Turkey might reinstate the death penalty – to be applied to the coup plotters. This means, in essence, bye bye EU. And bye bye to the European Parliament approving visa-free travel for Turks visiting Europe. Erdogan after all already got what he wanted from chancellor Merkel; those 6 billion euros to contain the refugee crisis that he essentially unleashed. Merkel bet the farm on Erdogan. Now she’s talking to herself – while the Sultan is able to dial God on Face Time.
 
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Meanwhile, Erdogan’s Gulfstream 4, flight number TK8456, took off from Bodrum’s airport at 1:43 A.M. and flew for hours over Turkey’s northwest with its transponder on, undisturbed. It was from the presidential plane, while still landed, that Erdogan had gone on Face Time, and then, on the air, managed to control the countercoup. The plane never left Turkish airspace – and was totally visible to civil and military radars. The coup plotters’ F-16s could have easily tracked and/or incinerated it. Instead they sent military choppers to bomb the presidential abode in Bodrum a long time after he had left the building

:sas2: Kabuki theater
 

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Exactly. How can someone in Pennsylvania control his own army :what:

Gulen is very influential. Read up on his movement.

Him and Erdogan used to be allies.

IF it was Gulen loyalists who staged the coup, then the ruling AKP could very well turned into a more Gulen-styled rule. Which would be more beneficial to the US.
 

Tony D'Amato

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Gulen is very influential. Read up on his movement.

Him and Erdogan used to be allies.

IF it was Gulen loyalists who staged the coup, then the ruling AKP could very well turned into a more Gulen-styled rule. Which would be more beneficial to the US.
But if its truly his army, he shoulda been took care of this. Dont send no damn raven to tell our President a coup is being planned. Crack some skulls and make sure it wont happen:stopitslime:
 

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Gulen is very influential. Read up on his movement.

Him and Erdogan used to be allies.

IF it was Gulen loyalists who staged the coup, then the ruling AKP could very well turned into a more Gulen-styled rule. Which would be more beneficial to the US.

You really still think it was Gulen, Breh? Really?
 

Nomadum

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@Ill

Turkey and Russia are about to make nice. This is a big blow to NATO's goals last week.

Turkish intelligence officers leaving Syria and the rebels in Aleppo by themselves means that the Syrian government is going to be happy too. I've also read "Assad must go" might be dropped from the current Turkish government.

thats all we need is for the middl :ohhh:

it's a wrap brehs, once the middle east regain control and unite with each other against the West and our policies, it's nothing we can do. terrorism is about to made into a secret military branch and watch how the west and our allies get fukked.

shyt!
 

Nomadum

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neo-ottomanism :huhldup:
aye breh, can you explain to me what ottomanism is? I know that the ottoman/ottomen are involved in some nasty genocide history (if I have my research straight) so is ottomanism on par with the bullshyt IS believes in/doing?
 
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