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Riots in Turkey

Moves are being made to remove an article of law that legitimizes coups.

Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) is preparing to submit a bill to Parliament today seeking to amend Article 35 of the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) Internal Service Code, which provides grounds and an incentive for the military to intervene in politics.

Article 35 of the TSK Internal Service Code has often been criticized for having provided a legal basis for the past four coups d'état and the government recently announced plans to either amend or abolish it.

Article 35 of the TSK Internal Service Code entered Turkish legislation after the May 27, 1960 coup d'état. It was later cited as the legal basis for the March 12, 1971 and Sept. 12, 1980 interventions. It says the duty of the military is to “preserve and protect the Republic of Turkey.”​


http://www.todayszaman.com/news-319...nd-coup-legitimizing-article-of-tsk-code.html

Some protests and police action in the capital last night.
 
Here's an interesting article on the conspiracy theory culture I have mentioned and how it has been playing in recent events.


Protocols of the Interest Rate Lobby

Whether it's shadowy bankers, America, Israel, or Iran, there's no end to the conspiracy theories spun by the Turkish prime minister's supporters -- and their opponents.

BY PIOTR ZALEWSKI | JUNE 26, 2013
[...]
In Turkey, conspiracy theories are to politics what kebabs and baklava are to an evening meal. That goes for supporters and opponents of Erdogan alike, often with the same targets in mind. Of the dozens of Gezi protesters I talked to over the past weeks, many earnestly claimed that the United States had parachuted Erdogan and his party into power in 2002, that the Obama administration retained a Pennsylvania-based Turkish cleric, Fethullah Gulen, in order to bolster its aims in the Middle East, and that it and the European Union continued to support the militants of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, in a bid to divide Turkey.

The tendency to cry "plot" is as old as the Turkish Republic itself, understandable in a part of the world where the West's armies and intelligence agencies have intervened on a regular basis -- particularly so in a country that faced the very real prospect of Allied partition after World War I. Well into the 1990s, rare was the national crisis that Turkish politicians and army generals refused to blame on Greece, the United States, the EU, the Armenian diaspora, or Turkey's own Kurdish minority.​
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articl...ests_conspiracy_theories#.UcvtOgBNVlY.twitter
 
Interesting. Names the think tank allegedly leading the plot your other article mentioned earlier. American Enterprise Institute. Good old neo-con cabal. Went to look for the evil paper but just found this transparent denial clarifying statement:

Danielle Pletka said:
Some parts of the Turkish press are reporting that the anti-government protests now ongoing in Turkey are the result of a plot at the American Enterprise Institute. Apparently, a meeting took place between some of our scholars and outsiders, and these Jews (for many, though not all, at the alleged meeting are Jews) and their fellow travelers planned the whole thing. Now, as director of our foreign policy work, I’m tickled to think that anyone believes we could rally the nation of Turkey against the increasingly autocratic, Islamist Erdoğan government. But as an honest human being, I have to admit this didn’t happen. No meeting. No plot. No Jewish cabal.
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:D
 
On the other hand some criticism about Western reporting of the events is certainly justified. Just found this piece on Today's Zaman which is a review of this week's cover story of DER SPIEGEL, which devotes ten pages to the events (and publishes them also in a Turkish version). And while I didn't read it, the review describes the very well-known patterns of what comes out when SPIEGEL decides to write one of their pathetic propaganda pieces.

SEVGİ AKARÇEŞME said:
Had I not been living in Turkey, I could have easily thought that Turkey is an “open air prison” after reading the latest cover story in the well-known German magazine Spiegel concerning Turkey's Gezi Park protests. I felt as if it was talking about a different country. If I were a German reading that piece with travel plans for Turkey, I would reconsider my plans thinking that chaos had taken over the whole city, if not the country. [...]
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Does Hanlon's razor apply, "namely Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity"? Or in this case half-arsed journalism, complete with naïve political bias?
 
Absolutely not. I suspect you are aware of the recent rather ugly diplomatic fallout between Turkey and Germany in the wake of the protests. SPIEGEL (especially the print edition) is an agenda-setting medium read by "the elite", and there's nothing half-arsed about it. They know what they are doing, in this case delivering a subtext to decision makers that Turkey is not fit for the EU.
 
Sideroxylon said:
Article 35 of the TSK Internal Service Code has often been criticized for having provided a legal basis for the past four coups d'état and the government recently announced plans to either amend or abolish it.

Article 35 of the TSK Internal Service Code entered Turkish legislation after the May 27, 1960 coup d'état. It was later cited as the legal basis for the March 12, 1971 and Sept. 12, 1980 interventions. It says the duty of the military is to “preserve and protect the Republic of Turkey.”[/INDENT]
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FWIW, back in about 1995, a Turkish Naval officer explained it to me as an affirmation of the constitutional requirement, laid on the armed forces of Turkey, to defend and retain the secular nature of the Turkish government. (i.e., a safeguard against a return of the Caliphate/Theocracy)

Are we talking about the same thing, or something related?
 
Darth Rotor said:
FWIW, back in about 1995, a Turkish Naval officer explained it to me as an affirmation of the constitutional requirement, laid on the armed forces of Turkey, to defend and retain the secular nature of the Turkish government. (i.e., a safeguard against a return of the Caliphate/Theocracy)

Are we talking about the same thing, or something related?
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I would think so.
 
I'm sure they're following the situation closely, but a military coup would be very bad for Turkey, especially for the economy.

They have made some veiled threats about Erdogan stepping too close to the line of secularity a couple of times in the past, but as far as I'm aware they haven't commented on the current situation.
 
Ryokan said:
I'm sure they're following the situation closely, but a military coup would be very bad for Turkey, especially for the economy.

They have made some veiled threats about Erdogan stepping too close to the line of secularity a couple of times in the past, but as far as I'm aware they haven't commented on the current situation.
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The military getting involved does not necessarily mean a coup. It could also be called in by the President, and the leadership would then have to choose to support him or not. That isn't the same as a coup. ;)
 
Darth Rotor said:
The military getting involved does not necessarily mean a coup. It could also be called in by the President, and the leadership would then have to choose to support him or not. That isn't the same as a coup. ;)
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That is not going to happen. The president and PM are both members of the ruling Justice and Development Party. The secularists and others who have been protesting recently were none too impressed and held huge rallies when this current president came to power with his headscarved wife. The president has spoken out against the PM on aspects of democracy related to recent events but he has no affinity for the agenda of the protestors or anything to be gained from a coup - I'd think it would be political suicide for him in fact.
 
Sideroxylon said:
That is not going to happen. The president and PM are both members of the ruling Justice and Development Party. The secularists and others who have been protesting recently were none too impressed and held huge rallies when this current president came to power with his headscarved wife. The president has spoken out against the PM on aspects of democracy related to recent events but he has no affinity for the agenda of the protestors or anything to be gained from a coup - I'd think it would be political suicide for him in fact.
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You should mention that the plan was to hold a referendum to change the constitution into reducing the parliamentary influence and strengthen the position of the President, and then the current president Gul and the current prime minister (who cannot run again) would do a Putin-Medvedew switch stunt making Erdogan the shining all-new powerful president. Hopefully at least this plan will be prevented by current events - this man sure has proven that he shouldn't have even more power in his hands.
 
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According to Twitter there is a growing crowd and police presence in Istanbul's Taksim Square. Another gathering the capital also.
 
Facebook denies report on share of user data with Turkish gov't amid protests

Andalou Agency said:
[...] Earlier on Wednesday, Turkey's communication minister said the Turkish officials contacted several social networks including Facebook and Twitter for cooperation.

"We did not see a positive attitude [from Twitter] but Facebook has been working in harmony with the Turkish authorities for a long time," Binali Yildirim told reporters.
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A common pattern in those situations. Twitter reluctant, Facebook more than happy to comply.
 
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Taksim Square is currently hosting this country's largest ever LGBT parade. Will like English news when available.
 
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