Turkey

2016-07-16T13:55:01-05:00

So that was horrible and scary to observe, but interesting to think about from a long, safe distance away. Erdogan is in my opinion a very bad dude. He has been repressing his critics with violence, promoting Islamism, and making all manner of dumb foreign policy moves. But it would be bad to see him overthrown in a non-democratic fashion, given that he was elected, however narrowly. You don't know whether those doing the overthrowing really are trying to reinstate legitimate democracy, as they claimed, or not. However, what happens if Erdogan really does cross the line to the point that it's no longer a legitimate democracy? What marks the boundary? For instance, a story this morning is that he has (just now!) summarily removed THOUSANDS of judges from office (jailing some) so that he can install his own partisans and control the judiciary. We know what he has done to peaceful protestors calling for various fundamental human rights to be respected.

It was also interesting to observe what steps the coup took to attempt to seize control, and what counterefforts were able to prevent it. What do you have to be able to control in order to be able to govern a country? Means of moving through the country, communicating with people, and symbols of authority seemed to be the primary targets - e.g. airports, ports, bridges, TV news, social media, government buildings. What exactly has to happen to cut people off from their usual modes of communication?

Anyway, I worry that this failed coup is going to lead to even worse repression of the people there. I also wish they could find some means of permitting groups like the Kurds and Armenians to unite under some form of protectorate that answers to the national government but otherwise can have a greater degree of autonomy, if that would quell some of the conflict. Lately I have seen some stories about how, in additional to all the other bazillion reasons for instability in the area, there's an ongoing struggle over oil and natural gas pipelines and potential routes. All of this is related to the conflicts among different factions and sub-factions, and who's trying to buy off or kill off whom. I do not begin to grasp it all.

Statistics: Posted by Elle — Sat Jul 16, 2016 1:55 pm

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Turkey