Tukish Military Does What The Turkish Military Does Best?

[Bereta_Eder]

Also a pregnant woman was almost lynched in Constantinople by two women wearing islamic clothes because they said she "dressed too provocatively and is supporting the coup".
Apparently now an easy way to tell if someone is a coup supporter is if he wears jeans.

Luckily the woman was not killed.

The doctor refused to issue a note describing the woman's beatings (he must not have supported the coup)

[Dinner]

Turkey is really in a dark place and it is getting worse fast.

[Bereta_Eder]

The most important thing IMHO from a pragmatic "selfish" view is the immigration deal.

Even if erdogan again "floods the gates" I think there is a parameter that wasn't there before. Namely a quite firm NATO presence, including a rather... active latvian vessel...

Of course time will tell.
Tsipras and Erdogan are on the phone like every other day, so it's not that communication has been severed.

[Proteus_MST]

Not to forget that Erdogan now also is angry about italy.

Why? Because they have dared to prosecute Erdogans son (who was studying at Bologna) becvause of money laundring

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2016/08/02/turkish-italian-leaders-spar-over-probe-into-erdogan-son.html

[Bereta_Eder]

His answer was: "Italians, go after the mafia, not my son"

(he does have a minor point, but it's hilarious the macho bravado he exhumes against nearly everyone)

[Proteus_MST]

His answer was: "Italians, go after the mafia, not my son"

(he does have a minor point, but it's hilarious the macho bravado he exhumes against nearly everyone)

I love the response of the italian premier:
In this country judges respond to the law and the italian constitution, not to Erdogan

[Bereta_Eder]

An answer almost certaintly not played in the turkish media but a good answer nevertheless

[Bereta_Eder]

The thing is that Erdogan really lifted Turkey's economy and he said he has done it through (Dinner will love this) privitizations.
He comes from a rural background... He's pretty much loved by large sums of people in Turkey. The most conservative, religious ones.

There was a vibrant voice of democracy, left wingism, human rights activism in Turkey. Not related to Kemalism and the military semi-junta this represents. In the media it was expressed through newspapers like cumhurriet. Now it's crushed and cumhurriet was of course among the first papers to be dictatorially closed.

[Giancarlo]

He lifted the economy and through these actions he will ruin it. This is a great way to scare foreign investment and causes companies to close up shop. He is a fool.

BTW, privatization can be highly damaging and only produces short-term profit. The people in the country rarely profit from it.

[Dinner]

You do not know what you are talking about wrt privitizations. In many cases, most even, it provides cash to cash strapped governments and frees up government funding for more pressing needs such as education, infrastructure, and health care. Basically, it reduces total government liabilities, allows the privitized companies to be better managed and thus more competitive, and allows government to better focus on its core responsiblities instead of starving essential services to pay for business ventures it never should have been in in the first place.

Oh, it also greatly reduces expensive long term pension costs because those workers are no longer government employees so it is a net win for taxpayers and citizens.

[Bereta_Eder]

He lifted the economy and through these actions he will ruin it. This is a great way to scare foreign investment and causes companies to close up shop. He is a fool.

BTW, privatization can be highly damaging and only produces short-term profit. The people in the country rarely profit from it.

Exactly.

The damages from the whole coup and subsequent crackdown are estimated in the range of 100 billion dollars.

Turkey's credit rating has been downgraded, however if erdogan keeps the investment environment relatively stable, he can avoid capital flowing out. But, it's much more difficult than before.

And there's of course the whole much more serious thing of the country starting to look like a giant Midnight Express.

[Giancarlo]

Exactly.

The damages from the whole coup and subsequent crackdown are estimated in the range of 100 billion dollars.

Turkey's credit rating has been downgraded, however if erdogan keeps the investment environment relatively stable, he can avoid capital flowing out. But, it's much more difficult than before.

And there's of course the whole much more serious thing of the country starting to look like a giant Midnight Express.

So he single handedly is damaging the economy he is sometimes credited with helping. If Turkey is hit with another credit downgrade in the future, it will make it impossible for the country to borrow any sort of money. And even harder to attract investment.

He could have reacted in a far better way. Now the people will suffer over their foolish mistake of backing this despot.

If he continues, the world will see him as a pariah and not even Putin would want anything to do with him.

[Proteus_MST]

...

If he continues, the world will see him as a pariah and not even Putin would want anything to do with him.

But I am afraid at this time, he will have tightened his grip on Turkey so much, that there won't be any legal means (by the turkish people) anymore, to remove Erdogan from his presidency ... and he will also have so much islamist backing in the military that there won't be any attempt at another coup
(after all that's surely what the closure of all traditional military academies and the founding of the new military university is all about ... i.e. getting rid of the Kemalists in the military and getting a new generation oif recruits that is islamist as well as personally loyal to Erdogan)

[Bereta_Eder]

From one hand, that would have been ideal, if the course Turkey would have taken would be more democratic.
The military always had a huge role on things. Actually it was the real government.
That's why Shroeder had said, back in the day, that what Turkey needs is a series of "mini revolutions" meaning towards an emancipation of the political power from their military overlords.

Unfortunately what has happened is that these "mini revolutions" indeed take place but towards an autocratic, religious state.

Some blame the EU for dragging its feet when it came to Turkey. Its political elite became disolusioned and shifted away.

However, even through brute force (using the migrant crisis) Erdogan managed to have, very grudgigly, the chapters of negotiation for Turkey's admission re-opened.

Then the coup happened and again the whole process is in the air.

From a point of view of Greek - Turkish relations, it was always a drag to have to deal with the military ruled Turkey. Under Erdogan things had changed for the noticeably better. (far fewer air dogfights for one). They continue to be good. Only a couple every week.

[Proteus_MST]

Poor Erdogan ... he has to be mad at germany again ...
because of our leaked BND (our secret service) reports, that Turkey is the central platform for actions of islamist actions in the middle east

...In the confidential opinion of the federal government, which had been made on Tuesday first publicized by the ARD, states, inter alia, that Turkey had since 2011 gradually developed “the central platform for action for Islamist groups in the region of the Middle East”. are mentioned in the radical Islamic Palestinian organization Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and the “groups of armed Islamist opposition in Syria”....

http://archyworldys.com/turkey-bnd-report-brings-erdogan-government-in-rage/

One wonders how long Erdogan will tolerate such insolences from germany?
Well, IIRC the long term plans of the AKP have been to install the crescent flag on the whole of europe until 2071, so maybe till this time