Coup in Turkey

desura

Diamond Member
Mar 22, 2013
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Simple q: say you are a lower level enlisted. Your officers in your unit decide to stage a coup. Do you go along? Snitch? Try to stay neutral?

I'm assuming that if the coup fails then entire units will be put in front of the firing squad.
 

desura

Diamond Member
Mar 22, 2013
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what does your heart tell you?

Well, right now I'm hoping that the coup succeeds because...why not? I'm not that familiar with Turkish politics, and it depends on how I perceive Erdogan.

I didn't think the coup against Morsi was a good idea.
 

GagHalfrunt

Lifer
Apr 19, 2001
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Unless you have an uncle or grandfather in the government that is being overthrown, you have no way to come forward. The chain of command is all in on it and won't tolerate lower ranking grunts fucking things up. Your only winning move is to go along. If it works, you're in. And if it fails, it's probably only the leaders that get executed. The little guys were just following orders and probably get off.
 

TheGardener

Golden Member
Jul 19, 2014
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The coup maybe complete or maybe not. If it succeeds, what will NATO do? Turkey is a member. Hard to imagine that a military dictatorship can remain a member. Then again it might depend on where the military sympathies lay. Right now I have to imagine that their membership will be suspended, if the coup is successful. But how do you quickly untangle a military alliance? Obama seems confused when it comes to tangled situations.
 

desura

Diamond Member
Mar 22, 2013
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Unless you have an uncle or grandfather in the government that is being overthrown, you have no way to come forward. The chain of command is all in on it and won't tolerate lower ranking grunts fucking things up. Your only winning move is to go along. If it works, you're in. And if it fails, it's probably only the leaders that get executed. The little guys were just following orders and probably get off.

Well, say you are like a captain or something.
 

TheGardener

Golden Member
Jul 19, 2014
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Well, right now I'm hoping that the coup succeeds because...why not? I'm not that familiar with Turkish politics, and it depends on how I perceive Erdogan.

I didn't think the coup against Morsi was a good idea.

So you think that a jihadist government in Egypt would have been better than what is there now?
 

GagHalfrunt

Lifer
Apr 19, 2001
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Well, say you are like a captain or something.

Let's say you're a captain or something. That's a fairly low rank. You can't march into the Pentagon, Kremlin or whatever the Turkish equivalent is. You'd have to stay within the system and buck it up the line. Who can you trust? Blab to the wrong person who happens to be in on it and you'd be summarily executed to protect the plan. You follow orders and if the coup works you're a team player who can be trusted by the new regime. If the coup fails you were only following orders. The best move is not to play. If forced to play, the next best move is to go along with it. Highest upside potential, least chance to get killed.
 

Dr. Zaus

Lifer
Oct 16, 2008
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In the US I always fight and die on the side of the constitution and the rule of law. Even if I hate the outcome, it's the only way to gain the exponentially lower likelihood of violent murder we see in modern democracies.
 

GagHalfrunt

Lifer
Apr 19, 2001
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The coup maybe complete or maybe not. If it succeeds, what will NATO do? Turkey is a member. Hard to imagine that a military dictatorship can remain a member. Then again it might depend on where the military sympathies lay. Right now I have to imagine that their membership will be suspended, if the coup is successful. But how do you quickly untangle a military alliance? Obama seems confused when it comes to tangled situations.

Turkey is important as a buffer between the shitholes of the middle east and Europe. NATO will do everything possible to play nice with Turkey and the new regime (if there is one) in Turkey will probably at least pretend to be loyal to NATO. They're fucked if they align with Russia. Besides, NATO hates Erdogan, the only reason they didn't kick out Turkey was because of how important Turkey is. From NATO's standpoint having the military in control might be an improvement.
 

IronWing

No Lifer
Jul 20, 2001
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The coup maybe complete or maybe not. If it succeeds, what will NATO do? Turkey is a member. Hard to imagine that a military dictatorship can remain a member. Then again it might depend on where the military sympathies lay. Right now I have to imagine that their membership will be suspended, if the coup is successful. But how do you quickly untangle a military alliance? Obama seems confused when it comes to tangled situations.

NATO will do what it has always done when there is a coup in Turkey: wag fingers, mumble about sanctions, wait two weeks, and continue on.
 

Ruptga

Lifer
Aug 3, 2006
10,246
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Turkey is important as a buffer between the shitholes of the middle east and Europe. NATO will do everything possible to play nice with Turkey and the new regime (if there is one) in Turkey will probably at least pretend to be loyal to NATO. They're fucked if they align with Russia. Besides, NATO hates Erdogan, the only reason they didn't kick out Turkey was because of how important Turkey is. From NATO's standpoint having the military in control might be an improvement.

All definitely true except maybe the bolded. Russia loves supporting military dictatorships.
 

GagHalfrunt

Lifer
Apr 19, 2001
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So does the USA :D

And Russia is already supporting many of the people Turkey is fighting with. So they don't have any choice but to stay with us and given the strategic importance of Turkey we have no choice but to stay with them. We're both making a deal with the devil because the other devils are even worse.
 

Ruptga

Lifer
Aug 3, 2006
10,246
207
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So does the USA :D

No doubt, but the point is that the Russians wouldn't be opposed to working with the new management either.

And Russia is already supporting many of the people Turkey is fighting with. So they don't have any choice but to stay with us and given the strategic importance of Turkey we have no choice but to stay with them. We're both making a deal with the devil because the other devils are even worse.

Granted, I have no idea how deeply they hate whoever they've been fighting with, but things like friends and enemies change all the time when there's a major change in government.
 

GagHalfrunt

Lifer
Apr 19, 2001
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No doubt, but the point is that the Russians wouldn't be opposed to working with the new management either.



Granted, I have no idea how deeply they hate whoever they've been fighting with, but things like friends and enemies change all the time when there's a major change in government.

It's not so much Turkey's hatred, but existing power blocs. For Russia to support Turkey now they not only have to risk NATO crawling up in their shit, they have to abandon most of their other alliances in the region.