Turkey launches mass trial of officers charged in July 2016 coup attempt

[Sea]

This shit's live so I'll just let you read it live. Expect updates to keep rolling in.

http://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-europe-36811357 (http://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-europe-36811357)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/15/turkey-low-flying-jets-and-gunfire-heard-in-ankara1/ (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/15/turkey-low-flying-jets-and-gunfire-heard-in-ankara1/)

http://i.imgur.com/7drHiqr.gif

Previously, in April:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36099889
Turkey's highest appeals court has overturned the convictions of 275 people, including senior military officers, accused of plotting a coup.
The appeals court ruled that the convictions were unsafe because the existence of a clandestine network called Ergenekon was unproven.
The officers, journalists, lawyers and academics were found guilty in 2013 of plotting the overthrow of then-prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The new ruling may lead to a retrial.
The Ergenekon case was one of the biggest in recent Turkish history, pitting Mr Erdogan's supporters in the Islamist-rooted AK Party against the secularist military establishment.
The trials took place amid high security at Silivri, outside Istanbul, and police repeatedly used tear gas and water cannon to keep protesters at a distance.
The highest-ranking defendant was ex-military chief Ilker Basbug, who was given a life sentence. Sixteen other life sentences were also handed down, with long jail terms for others.
Pressure on military

The appeals court found several other flaws in the original proceedings, including illegal surveillance and searches.
Mr Basbug walked free in March 2014, after Turkey's constitutional court overturned his sentence, citing a legal technicality. He was in charge of the Turkish military from 2008 to 2010.
Image copyright AFP Image caption Two years ago a court ordered the release of ex-army chief Ilker Basbug from jail The Ergenekon network was accused of plotting a coup against Mr Erdogan - now Turkey's president - in 2003-2004.
The trials were based on suspicions of a shadowy "deep state" conspiring to cause social unrest which would then provoke a military coup.
Mr Erdogan's critics saw the investigation as an attempt to curb the influence of the powerful military, which for decades saw itself as the final arbiter in Turkish politics. Since coming to power in 2002, Mr Erdogan has asserted civilian supremacy over the military.
Between 1960 and 1997, the armed forces removed four civilian governments. The Welfare Party ousted in 1997 was a predecessor of Mr Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP).
Hundreds of military officers were arrested in a five-year investigation before the Ergenekon verdict. Some of them were prosecuted in a separate case called "Sledgehammer".

(nice going)

[Antiochus]

This probably could not have happened in a worse place at a worse time:(

[Onecom]

Finally.

Erdogan needed to go for a while now, lets just hope the Coup group is not worse.

[GiantMonkeyMan]

There's a tradition in Turkey, not necessarily a positive one, of the military enacting a coup in order to uphold the secular, 'democratic' traditions of capitalism and suppress the Islamic, right-wing traditions that folks like Erdogan spew. There's some thought that Erdogan and his cronies orchestrated this themselves, considering how unorganised the coup has been, basically to give themselves a popularity boost since they're particularly unpopular at the moment. Dunno, still in the 'wait and see' phase.

[MarxSchmarx]

As far as I know revleft is still active in Turkey.

So, message to all posters.

First, think of our comrades in Turkey. Major social media sites are down. So DO NOT SPREAD RUMORS! The coupists have declared martial law. In particular, if there is a development that you think in anyway ENDANGERS A FELLOW REVLEFTER in ANY WAY based in Turkey, DO NOT POST IT HERE. This is not a time to fuck around from the comfort abroard. Anything from somebody who is not in Turkey long the lines of "Death to XYZ" or "Down with the fascists" don't help.

I cannot stress this enough. DO NOT MAKE OUR COMRADES A TARGET FOR EITHER SIDE. All Turkish leftists stand for genuine democracy, but also despise Erdogan. This is a very dangerous situation for them.

If you must keep up to date, this twitter account seems to be able to get by the censors for now:
https://twitter.com/ZiaWeise

[ckaihatsu]

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/07/16/turk-j16.html


Is it just a coincidence that in the past few days, Ankara has sought reconciliation with the Syrian government, and Russia - maybe some players don't want that.....


---


http://news.google.com

http://sputniknews.com/politics/20160715/1043034068/turkey-syria-assad.html


Turkey Adopts Double-Edged Approach Toward Syria © AFP 2016/ OZAN KOSE

POLITICS

18:37 15.07.2016(updated 18:38 15.07.2016) Get short URL

11663113

Turkey has adopted a double-edged approach toward Syria: vowing to normalize relations with the country, Ankara, at the same time, still cannot reconcile itself with the necessity to hold dialogue with the legitimate and democratically-elected Syrian leader, Bashar al-Assad.

[Antiochus]

Is it just a coincidence that in the past few days, Ankara has sought reconciliation with the Syrian government, and Russia - maybe some players don't want that.....

Mmmm this is very doubtful. These coups take months of planning, they just aren't a spur of the moment thing.

[Exterminatus]

Apparently Erdogan is actively blaming the US for the coup. Perhaps Žižek's Putogan is finally becoming a reality?

[Discordant element]

This, sadly, cannot lead to anything good. This was a failed coup: the govt. can justify having a police state for the next few years.

[Heretek]

This, sadly, cannot lead to anything good. This was a failed coup: the govt. can justify having a police state for the next few years.

It was the military attempting the coup. It would have led to this regardless and a crackdown on leftists as enemies of the state. It already happened in Libya and Egypt

[ChangeAndChance]

I think this whole situation is fodder for conspiracy theories. I for one wouldn't be surprised if Erdogan orchestrated the coup himself to regain public and international support and justify his continued destruction of the left in Turkey. On the other hand, Professor As'ad AbuKhalil has suggested that the coup was actually organized by outside forces like the Saudi government: http://angryarab.blogspot.ca/

[ckaihatsu]

---





The British Telegraph newspaper elaborated on the growth of tensions between Washington and Ankara in the weeks before the coup attempt:
“Mr. Erdoğan suddenly launched a dramatic diplomatic revolution in the month before the coup. In rapid succession, his government repaired its relations with Russia, Egypt and Israel. Overnight Mr. Erdoğan’s descriptions of Putin, Sisi and Netanyahu as murderers were forgotten. Then, on the eve of the coup, Turkey’s new prime minister even talked of reviving relations with Syria.

“At the same time, relations with the United States have taken a nosedive.




http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/07/18/pers-j18.html

[Alet]

There's a tradition in Turkey, not necessarily a positive one, of the military enacting a coup in order to uphold the secular, 'democratic' traditions of capitalism and suppress the Islamic, right-wing traditions that folks like Erdogan spew.

However, the question is whether a coup could have revived formal democracy today. Erdogan enjoys the support of the Turkish masses, who are already deeply reactionary. I don't see how a military coup could have been successful this time. Considering that even the HDP despised the coup attempt, they still had some breathing room for both parliamentary and general party activity, despite the fact that Erdogan was extending his power. Turkish democrats probably should have devoted themselves to the HDP. Anyway, the coup attempt is Erdogans personal Reichstag fire and I feel gloomy about Turkey's future now. It will be difficult to figure out what is to be done in order to fight for political freedoms.

[Devrim]

I wrote a short piece the other day about the coup and people power:
http://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2016-07-17/coup-in-turkey-people-power
Devrim

[ckaihatsu]

Following a meeting with the foreign ministers of the European Union, Kerry indirectly warned Turkey on Monday that it might lose its NATO membership if the government continued to act against its political opponents. “NATO membership supposes respect for democratic principles,” he announced.

[...]

Erdogan is a reactionary politician with authoritarian ambitions. But the settling of accounts with him is the task of the Turkish and international working class, not the Turkish military and imperialist powers. Not least, the coup attempt was aimed at pre-empting such a movement from below. Had the coup succeeded, the military would have detained tens of thousands of militant workers, as in previous military takeovers, torturing and murdering them, without Washington or Berlin blinking an eye.

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/07/19/turk-j19.html

[Devrim]

It's a bit of a poor article. There is no movement from below to preempt, and there is no reason to think that the military would have detained tens of thousands of militant workers.

[ckaihatsu]

---





It is not possible to judge whether all the details in the newspaper's report are true or not. But far from being “ridiculous” or “completely false,” the Pentagon and the CIA unquestionably had a major hand in the coup attempt.




During the coup attempt, Turkish fighter jets operated by plotters flew in and out of Incirlik under the eyes of the US military. After it became clear that the putsch would fail, the base commander General Bekir Ercan Van asked the US for asylum. Obviously abandoned by his backers in Washington, he and other pro-coup soldiers at the base have been arrested.

Shortly after the aborted coup, Turkish Labor Minister Suleyman Soylu, speaking on the broadcaster Haberturk, directly charged that “the United States is behind the coup.”




http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/07/28/turk-j28.html

[ckaihatsu]

Tell Turkey's government that journalism is not a crime


Hundreds of journalists have been arrested, sacked and harassed following Turkey's attempted coup.

The failed coup was followed by a state of emergency and excessive and indiscriminate measures to purge all individuals believed to be connected to the attempt.

The Turkish authorities are now jailing journalists, shutting down radio and TV channels and censoring the internet in an attempt to silence criticism.

90 journalists are in jail and more than 130 media have been banned since mid-July.

2500 journalists have lost their jobs and arrest warrants have been issued for dozens of media workers.

Some families of journalists, who are in hiding or have fled, have been arrested to force them to surrender.

Please sign up to the International Federation of Journalists campaign on LabourStart:

http://www.labourstart.org/go/ifj

And please share this message with your friends, family and fellow trade union members.

Thank you!




Eric Lee
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[ckaihatsu]

via wsws.org (http://www.wsws.org)

On August 1, Ankara’s Fourth Criminal Court launched a trial of 486 defendants accused of complicity in the attempted coup in Turkey on July 15 of last year.

More... (http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/08/04/turk-a04.html)