Military Coup in Turkey underway.

[Dartzap]

Just caught a Breaking News thingy, Turkish Pm saying the military has seized bridges over the Bosphorus, and reports of jets circling.

Thought Erdogen had purged the secular generals ages ago?

[Borgholio]

Multiple news outlets including CNN and USA Today are reporting that the Turkish Prime Minister announced that a military coup is currently in progress. No details yet.

[Mr Bean]

Bridges are closed police have all been called into work
There's military in the streets of the capital and things are tense, no reports of active fighting and the PM appears to be in charge still.

[Dartzap]

It won't be the PM they are after, me thinks.

[Borgholio]

Confirmed - it's a military uprising.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/15/asia/turk ... l?adkey=bn

[Dartzap]

The Guardian has a liveblog Graun

[Ace Pace]

Probably hasn't finished the job, but about damn time they did it. After Erdogan finished destroying the judicial system, the press and half the basic laws.

[Sea Skimmer]

It isn't a real coup if they don't assault the government buildings in downtown Ankara, so far this has not been reported. So far also no sign of the rebel units being of large enough sizes to make a credible fight of it.

It appears the plan may be to seize key transport links and use control of them as a bargaining chip or simply to make a point. I can think of several ones someone might be willing to die over at this point.

[scythewielder]

I am not a fan of what Erdogan is doing in Turkey, but I am even less of a fan of military rule.

This kind of thing always strikes me as a double-edged sword, regardless of who ends up winning.

If the coup succeeds, repression will follow. If it doesn't, then the same will happen except in the opposite direction.

[Sea Skimmer]

Someone is declaring a coup to the newspapers...by email. Still no sign they have the troops to actually pull one off.

The 'tanks' reported are light infantry fighting vehicles too, if this comes to a fight even a small portion of the Turkish military remaining loyal to the government will wipe what has been seen so far out in 30 minutes. This is probably an action by a small force, hoping the bold action will bring out everyone in favor. Which is the plan of most coups, and most coups fail horribly.

[Dominus Atheos]

Someone is declaring a coup to the newspapers...by email. Still no sign they have the troops to actually pull one off.

The 'tanks' reported are light infantry fighting vehicles too, if this comes to a fight even a small portion of the Turkish military remaining loyal to the government will wipe what has been seen so far out in 30 minutes. This is probably an action by a small force, hoping the bold action will bring out everyone in favor. Which is the plan of most coups, and most coups fail horribly.

Turkish military coups have a better history of success. Military coups are somehow actually a "feature" of their form of government.

It's crazy, but it's worked out surprisingly well for them in the past.

[Alyrium Denryle]

I am not a fan of what Erdogan is doing in Turkey, but I am even less of a fan of military rule.

This kind of thing always strikes me as a double-edged sword, regardless of who ends up winning.

If the coup succeeds, repression will follow. If it doesn't, then the same will happen except in the opposite direction.

Turkey is kind of a weird duck in this respect. Their military likes to coup periodically, mostly when the Turkish government starts eroding democracy (that the military has historically had to actively keep in place) or secular government too much. There is *some* repression when they succeed, but it is usually of the cleaning house sort. In the 1980 coup, for example, the rounded up and tried those people complicit in US/Soviet proxy-fighting, if I remember correctly.

[MKSheppard]

Someone is declaring a coup to the newspapers...by email. Still no sign they have the troops to actually pull one off.

The 'tanks' reported are light infantry fighting vehicles too

The pattons are out to play....

[Sea Skimmer]

That's something more then the night photos certainly, but still no indication of great numbers. The prior Turkish coups though involved tens of thousands of troops, and in a framework in which no government loyalist faction was allowed to exist in the military. The military was loyal to the military. Since about 2000 most of the previous legal power the army had to act was stripped out and the high command and upper ranks of the officer corps were churned apart by Erdogan. That may well be the number one reason for this coup, only prompted by other events, but it also means its very likely that Erdogan can call on loyalist forces of some scale. And his person has not been captured by the coup plotters, apparently they do have the military chief of staff.

[Dominus Atheos]

If anyone wants a comprehensive analysis of past Turkish military coups, here's a good one from 1991:

http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a236024.pdf

[Alyrium Denryle]

Threads Merged

[Sea Skimmer]

Well okay, they actually moved to the important stuff after a delay, the state TV building has been seized and troops at least reached but may not have yet taken the presidential palace.

[ray245]

If Erodogan has to rely on skype to get his messages across, then it does indicate he does not have a strong control over the situation.

[Dartzap]

Seems to be conflicting reports of Erdogen fleeing in a plane, or in a bunker calling on people to rise up.

[Dartzap]

Apparently he tried to claim asylum in Germany. Our survey says....nein!

[Simon_Jester]

If he's seeking asylum and/or calling for popular uprisings, wouldn't that tend to indicate he doesn't have a substantial force of reliable troops at his disposal? It's not proof, but it's supporting evidence.

It appears the plan may be to seize key transport links and use control of them as a bargaining chip or simply to make a point. I can think of several ones someone might be willing to die over at this point.

Care to name a few? I'm curious and know little of Turkish politics.

[TithonusSyndrome]

Apparently army helicopters have been witnessed firing on the offices of the MIT, Turkey's intelligence agency.

[Crown]

Twitter has pictures of military helicopters firing in downtown Ankara.

https://twitter.com/snobers/status/754060133794246656

I know this isn't something we should technically be rejoicing over ... but this is long overdue. But I worry that Turkey is now almost permanently fragmented by Erdogan for it to unite for a while. Whether we like it or not the man was fairly elected.

[MKSheppard]

Claims from Turkish sources on air that head of Turkish military has been killed and that the heads of the Turkish Air Force and Land Forces are behind the coup.

[TithonusSyndrome]

1st Army commanding officer rejects the coup. May be why the tanks are withdrawing from Ataturk Airport.