Turkey - Internal Political Affairs

[garod]

Re: Turkey - Internal Political Affairs

Isik Kosaner (right) was appointed armed forces chief of staff just under a year ago


Turkey: Military chiefs 'resign en masse'


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Good news.This put Turkey more strong in the democracy way.
Quote from a turkish newspaper : Democracy is above seasonal averages in Turkey nowadays

[Alexandros]

Re: Turkey - Internal Political Affairs


Isik Kosaner (right) was appointed armed forces chief of staff just under a year ago


Turkey: Military chiefs 'resign en masse'

29 July 2011 Last updated at 16:38 GMT

The chief of the Turkish armed forces has resigned, along with the heads of the army, navy and air force, according to the state-run Anatolia news agency.

The reason for the resignations of Gen Isik Kosaner and the other heads remains unclear.

There has been a history of tension between the secularist military and the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in recent years.

Gen Kosaner is reported to have met Mr Erdogan several times in recent days.

The Supreme Military Council, which decides on promotions for senior officers, was due to meet next week.

Gen Kosaner said he was resigning "as he saw it as necessary", the Anatolia agency reported.

Friction between the government and military has been fuelled by an ongoing trial targeting dozens of senior military officers accused of plotting to overthrow the government.

The so-called "Sledgehammer" case arose from an alleged coup plan, presented at an army seminar in 2003.

That is just one of several scandals which have set Turkey's secularist establishment against Mr Erdogan's ruling AK party.

Critics have long suspected AK of having a secret Islamist agenda - a charge which the AK party has vigorously and consistently denied.

Gen Kosaner was appointed overall head of the Turkish armed forces just a year ago.

His appointment followed a period of intense friction between the government and the military, sparked by the Sledgehammer plot.

At that point, the politicians vetoed the army's original choice for joint chief.

Gen Hasan Igsiz was initially proposed, but was blocked because he was implicated in Sledgehammer.

The alleged conspiracy was drawn up at the Istanbul base of the First Army, shortly after the governing AK Party came to power.

It reportedly involved plans to bomb mosques and provoke tensions with Greece, in order to spark political chaos and justify a military takeover.

The military says it was only a contingency plan based on scenarios of political unrest.

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HOW 'COUP PLOTS' EMERGED

June 2007: Cache of explosives discovered; ex-soldiers detained

July 2008: 20 arrested, including two ex-generals and a senior journalist, for "planning political disturbances and trying to organise a coup"

July 2008: Governing AK Party narrowly escapes court ban

October 2008: 86 go on trial charged with Ergenekon coup plot

July 2009: 56 in dock as second trial opens

Nov 2009: Taraf newspaper reports "cage" plot, arrests begin

Jan 2010: Taraf reports 2003 Sledgehammer plot

Feb 2010: More than 40 officers arrested over Sledgehammer plot; several charged

December 2010: 196 current or former officers go on trial over Sledgehammer plot

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[Federate]

Re: Turkey - Internal Political Affairs

13 Turkish soldiers shot dead and 7 wounded (2 criticially) in a PKK ambush today.

[Mos]

Re: Turkey - Internal Political Affairs

It's good for us to have AKP win, because it will keep the tensions between the government and the secular military.

[Federate]

Re: Turkey - Internal Political Affairs

Erdogan and AK party win a reduced majority, CHP comes in second with increased seats. Erdogan and AK failed a sought-after two-thirds majority in order to unilaterally re-write the consitution. Rumours had it that he wanted to turn Turkey to a presidential system with more power to the executive.

[KanadaHye]

Re: Turkey - Internal Political Affairs

Turks await results in pivotal parliamentary election

Istanbul, Turkey (CNN) -- Officials in Turkey began tallying votes in potentially pivotal parliamentary elections after polls closed Sunday, and partial results were expected later in the day.

Fifteen parties are competing, as well as more than 200 independent candidates, for 550 seats in Turkey's next parliament.

As polls closed, reports began emerging of altercations and arrests at a fraction of the thousands of polling stations across the country. In the eastern town of Batman and the Aegean city of Izmir, police detained dozens suspects accused of trying to intimidate voters, the semi-official Anatolian Agency reported.

Meanwhile, in the capital of Ankara, police fired in the air to disperse a crowd that accused five members of the ruling political party of trying to enter a polling station, carrying counterfeit ballots, Anatolian also reported.

Ziynet Demirboga, an 84-year-old whose granddaughters escorted her to a polling station in Istanbul on a sunny Sunday afternoon, said, "I've been voting for more than 50 years. God willing, Erdogan will win."

Read more here:

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/europe...html?hpt=hp_t2

[Armanen]

Re: Turkey - Internal Political Affairs

Ottoman Empire was an Islamic empire, not a Turkish empire. There was no concept of Turkish Nationalism before the 19th century, and even after then it took another century before Nationalism spread to Anatolian Muslims. Kurds WERE Ottoman "Turks" , because they were Sunni Muslim. As an Armenian, you should be aware that the Genocide was mostly executed by ethnic Kurds. Urban Turkic Nationalists exploited rural Islam as a means to purge Armenians from Anatolia.

The ottoman empire was an islamic empire, it was also a turkic empire as well. During its different phases one aspect or another was encouraged as the form of the empire, but the bottomline is that the ottoman empire encouraged the peoples under its rule to adopt islam and to speak the turkish language. Under kemal the notion of turkishness was further expaned upon and the islamic factor was dropped.

I am well aware of the role the kurds played in the Armenian Genocide. And no kurds were not ottoman turks, they were ottoman citizens which is not the same thing.

[egeli]

Re: Turkey - Internal Political Affairs

Also, kurds have managed to escape assimilation for about 2000 years now, you really think they'll assimilate, with the turks nonetheless, in a few decades? Fat chance.

Ottoman Empire was an Islamic empire, not a Turkish empire. There was no concept of Turkish Nationalism before the 19th century, and even after then it took another century before Nationalism spread to Anatolian Muslims. Kurds WERE Ottoman "Turks" , because they were Sunni Muslim. As an Armenian, you should be aware that the Genocide was mostly executed by ethnic Kurds. Urban Turkic Nationalists exploited rural Islam as a means to purge Armenians from Anatolia.

[Armanen]

Re: Turkey - Internal Political Affairs

The Turkish State is inexorably adopting a Sunni Nationalist ideology. Kurds will inevitably become assimilated Turks through Sunni Nationalism; this is why the PKK is reacting so violently against Erdogan. They know very well that AKP, unlike the (formerly) Ataturkist State, represents an existential threat.

Soon, Turkish and Sunni identity will become one. Sunni Nationalism is what caused the Armenian Genocide.

Start preparing now. Seriously, you will be nostalgic of the Kemalist days very soon.

Let us assume that you are correct and turkey does become a sunni nationalist state. Do you think its sponsors in the west will let it do what it pleases? Two things will happen, either this new turkish sunni nationalist state will be working in conjunction and under the west, like turkey does (for the most part) now, or there will be a true break between the two and then turkey will become another pariah state, in the eyes of the west, like Iran currently.

Also, kurds have managed to escape assimilation for about 2000 years now, you really think they'll assimilate, with the turks nonetheless, in a few decades? Fat chance.

Another point to consider, the secular kemalist factions of turkish society will not take sunni nationalism being imposed on them without putting up a fight.

[KarotheGreat]

Re: Turkey - Internal Political Affairs

The Turkish State is inexorably adopting a Sunni Nationalist ideology. Kurds will inevitably become assimilated Turks through Sunni Nationalism; this is why the PKK is reacting so violently against Erdogan. They know very well that AKP, unlike the (formerly) Ataturkist State, represents an existential threat.

Soon, Turkish and Sunni identity will become one. Sunni Nationalism is what caused the Armenian Genocide.

Start preparing now. Seriously, you will be nostalgic of the Kemalist days very soon.

What will Turkey do that it hasn't done until now? Attack Armenia maybe? Or something else? I don't see how well this Sunni will Nationalism go down in the Kremlin and Brussels.