In whose interest is it for the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to launch a crackdown on judicial, educational, and military institutions, impose a state of emergency, and vow to execute those behind the coup against his Islamist government? In whose interest is it for Erdogan to establish for himself and his ruling party what can be termed a Sultan's Guard along the lines of the Republican Guard and the Revolutionary Guard in Saddam's Iraq and the Mullah regime in Iran respectively? Who wants to petrify Erdogan into purges and liquidations that bypass all transparency and democratic principles? Erdogan may appear victorious at home as he consolidates and expands his powers, but he is effectively under siege both from within and from without. Turkey is still being tested, and Erdogan is leading a deeply destabilized country. If anything, this is proof of the failure of his approach to governance, beginning with his systematic coup against secularism and Kemalism's separation of mosque and state. The humiliation of and the assault on the Turkish regular army's prestige is not to the credit of Erdogan as head of state, but quite the contrary. Even before the coup attempt, the president was deliberately sidelining the army, thus helped dismantle one of the most important institutions of the modern Turkish state and subjecting national security to severe risk just to protect his authoritarian administration even as this opened the door to Kurdish statehood. Erdogan's adventures abroad, for example in Egypt and Tunisia where he backed the Muslim Brotherhood coup against secular regimes, exposed his regional ambitions and made him a direct interferer in other countries' affairs. What he has done in Syria is also proof of not only a failed approach but also overconfidence. Indeed, Erdogan was the first to defend Bashar al-Assad from international accountability, when the Syrian dictator stood accused of assassinating Lebanese leaders, journalists, and intellectuals. Then he was the first to sell the illusion that the regime in Damascus could be easily toppled, with a sense of arrogance that has cost others too much. He is also accused of helping spawn extremist fundamentalist and terrorist groups in Syria. Today, after he chose confrontation with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Syria for a long period of time, before apologizing to him for downing a Russian jet in Syrian airspace, he is gearing up today to visit the Kremlin and meet with Putin in the first ten days of August - battered by the coup attempt and afraid of another, he is willing to make concessions in Syria albeit not in Turkey. The two men have a radical ideological dispute that a transient mandatory partnership will not fix: Putin considers the project of the rise of Islamists to power anathema while Erdogan is the godfather of the project and its expansion into Arab countries, and if he could, into the five Muslim republics surrounding Russia. The prospects for bargains and deals between the two men are open-ended, particularly since both leaders are suspicious of the United States regardless of who is in the White House, and both are more than keen to teach the Europeans a lesson or two. It is therefore important to have a clear picture of what happened in Turkey on the night of the failed coup. But more importantly, we must scope out the implications of the coup attempt, not just in Turkey but also in the country's immediate neighbors, the region and the world.
Some spoke of an alleged US role in the coup. The inefficient and odd coup also sparked many speculations. Some even accused Erdogan himself of staging the coup to give himself cover to gather more extraordinary powers and eliminate his opponents. Some ask how he managed to survive without being detained or assassinated, whether in Marmaris where he was on holiday or in mid-air as he returned to Istanbul. Others cited Washington's delayed official reaction as evidence of US complicity whether in staging the coup or in thwarting the coup, both meaning to threaten Erdogan. Everything is possible in our age of contradictory alliances.
Чемпионат по военно-спортивному многоборью среди росгвардейцев завершился в Грозном
В День парашютиста героем рубрики «Знай наших» стал сотрудник вневедомственной охраны столичного главка Росгвардии младший лейтенант полиции Александр С.
«Краснодар» и московское «Динамо» проведут сегодня первые матчи в Кубке России
Легкоатлеты из Мордовии показали лучшие результаты мирового сезона на международных соревнованиях в Москве
