Erdogan’s coup against himself

Erdogan’s coup against himself

Dr. Jassim Taqui

What the Turkish President has done in the last 48 hours following the failure of the coup that sought to topple him is unbelievable.

According to the Turkish media, Erdogan  started a campaign of arresting of  the elites of all institutions including the armed forces of Turkey, the judiciary,  academics and educational institutions, political parties, minorities and media.

The special police arrested 257 officers from the Prime Minister Secretariat.

So far, Erdogan closed 524 private schools, and 102 government educational institutions on charges of violation of the Turkish constitution. Similarly, the number of those staff who were dismissed from their jobs touched 21,738. They include 1577 deans of faculties and Vice Chancellors of the Universities.

About 1500 were dismissed from the Ministry of Higher Education while 492 people were arrested from the Ministry of Religious Affairs.

In the ministry of defence, the authorities arrested over 50,000 personnel of various ranks including 900 officers. Over 100 people were arrested from the military intelligence. Erdogan dismissed 262 advocates. According to German DW-TV, the dismissed advocates have been arrested. The authorities are investigating them on charges of subversion of the constitution. 

Over 900 police were dismissed but the authorities had arrested 724 out them who are being investigated.

Judiciary and parliament are being purged. Twenty-one judges are put under security surveillance while 3 members of the parliament were suspended. And the cleanup operations continues.

Evidently, Erdogan has over-reacted. It seems that he is eliminating all secular and intellectuals. This is the beginning of Erdogan’s Taliban. Soon, Erdogan would side with ISIS whom he created , trained and financed. Hence, Erdogan is implementing his dream of reviving the “ modern Ottoman Empire.”

According to the Russian Today (Arabic), Erdogan is accusing the CIA of being the brain behind the attempted coup. RT claimed that Erdogan forced the Americans to give up supporting the coup when he ordered  stormed the US base Incirlik in southern Turkey and seized tactical nuclear weapons. However, Turkish Daily Sabah maintained that movement in and out of the Incirlik base was blocked. The power in the base was also cut.

A special Turkish operation was conducted to arrest the pro-coup servicemen stationed in the base. Turkish officials stated that the base was neutralized and all suspects had been arrested but failed to give their number and nationality.

Erdogan may have controlled the situation for now. The pertinent question is, however, for how long? Internal forces are deemed to re-organize themselves and start a campaign against him similar to the one he created i.e. The 2011 Arab Spring.