Erdogan Gone Wild: 70,000+ post-coup Arrests

Ayatollah Erdogan makes Kim il Song and Kim Jong-un look restrained.
The Creep in 'Creeping Sharia' has used the failed coup to wipe out all opponents.
A 'Thought Police' sweep well past the military.


The 70,000 post-coup arrests are now at the heart of the Turkish government's propaganda war
From high-ranking military officials to University professors, those imprisoned since the attempted coup now total 70,756 - although some have been released
8 October 2016
The 70,000 post-coup arrests are now at the heart of the Turkish government's propaganda war | The Independent

The most striking figure shows how deeply the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has struck at the heart of the military, supposedly the guardian of the Turkish state since Mustafa Kamal Ataturk founded the nation after the First World War. The numbers show that an astounding 7,028 members of the Turkish armed forces have now been arrested. These include 164 generals and admirals, 287 colonels, 222 lieutenant colonels, 351 majors, 471 captains, and 1,091 lieutenants. And this, remember, is the largest army in Nato.
[.....]
These arrests include 2,385 judges, two of them members of the Turkish Supreme Court, 108 members of the High Court, 48 from high administrative courts, and five from the Higher Council of Judges and Public Prosecutors. At least 200 of the rest are more lowly judges and public prosecutors.
Among local dignitaries, 19 governors have been arrested, 76 deputy governors and 59 local municipal governors. The figures show that six mayors and two deputy mayors have been detained.
So have three heads of the Turkish Bar Association and 245 lawyers.
And if you think this is a big bite out of the echelons of Turkish society, take a look at what’s happened to the Police. Well over 7,000 have been picked up, including 629 city security directors, 47 assistant police directors – effectively police intelligence operatives – as well as 361 police chief officers, 649 superintendents, 1,110 assistant superintendents and 4,220 ordinary police officers. These figures may be considerably higher after 800 more but largely unspecified arrests in the past 48 hours. A government website has been sending detention figures to local journalists each morning, but it is almost impossible to keep pace with the overall figure.

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and today...

Turkey arrests pro-Kurdish parliamentarians as crackdown widens
By Erin Cunningham and Kareem Fahim - November 4
https://www.washingtonpost.com/worl...176328-a221-11e6-8864-6f892cad0865_story.html

ISTANBUL — Turkish authorities arrested and charged two leaders of a pro-Kurdish party in parliament Friday following overnight raids targeting a dozen lawmakers, signaling an escalation in the government’s clampdown on opponents and the country’s Kurdish minority.

Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag, co-leaders of the People’s Democratic Party (HDP), were ordered arrested pending trial. Six other lawmakers were arrested on terrorism-related charges.

The party, which holds more than 10% of the seats in parliament, is the chamber’s third-largest bloc. And Demirtas, a 43-year-old rights lawyer, had emerged as a formidable opponent of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Turkish officials have accused the party’s leaders of ties to Kurdish militants — charges the party has repeatedly denied.
[......]
The arrests drew condemnations from the United Nations and European Union, which said the moves “compromise parliamentary democracy in Turkey.” In a statement Friday, HDP deputies called the detentions “the end of democracy in Turkey” and said it was “a dark day” for the party and the country.

The arrests continued a broad crackdown by Erdogan’s government on political opponents in the aftermath of a failed coup in July..."

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mbig said:

Ayatollah Erdogan makes Kim il Song and Kim Jong-un look restrained.
The Creep in 'Creeping Sharia' has used the failed coup to wipe out all opponents.
A 'Thought Police' sweep well past the military.


The 70,000 post-coup arrests are now at the heart of the Turkish government's propaganda war
From high-ranking military officials to University professors, those imprisoned since the attempted coup now total 70,756 - although some have been released
8 October 2016
The 70,000 post-coup arrests are now at the heart of the Turkish government's propaganda war | The Independent


and today...

Turkey arrests pro-Kurdish parliamentarians as crackdown widens
By Erin Cunningham and Kareem Fahim - November 4
https://www.washingtonpost.com/worl...176328-a221-11e6-8864-6f892cad0865_story.html

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It is not yet totally certain, but it looks as though the country is on its way to dictatorship. It is also possible that parts of the country falls into civil unrest. Compared with the westernizer he once was until the EU turned him down, he is now a bad risk to the region, Europe and us.

Turkey isn't on the way to becoming a dictatorship, it is a dictatorship.

The groundwork was being laid well before the coup.

Erdogan and Turkey are not trustworthy. They have invaded Syria and Iraq. Were the purchasers of Daesh OIL and suppliers of ISIS in Syria. They shot down a Russian aircraft and are a member of NATO. Now they are positioned outside Mosul and are likely to attack the Kurds that are the best fighting force against Daesh is Iraq.

110,000+ Arrests.
I guess they're Intimidating on a rotation system since Jail space is short.
Fill em up, clear em, next group.

Erdogan blasts West as Turkey's Kurdish party boycotts parliament
By Tuvan Gumrukcu and Gulsen Solaker | ANKARA
Sun Nov 6, 2016
Erdogan blasts West as Turkey's Kurdish party boycotts parliament | Reuters

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan accused Europe on Sunday of abetting terrorism by supporting Kurdish militants and said he did not care if it called him a dictator.

Turkey drew international condemnation for the arrest on Friday of leaders and lawmakers from the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), the second-largest opposition grouping in parliament, as part of a terrorism investigation.
The government accuses the HDP, which made history last year by becoming the first Kurdish party to win 10% of the vote and enter parliament, of financing and supporting an armed Kurdish insurgency, which it denies. The HDP announced a partial boycott of parliament on Sunday, saying it was "halting its legislative efforts" and that its deputies would stop participating in sessions of the legislature or meetings of parliamentary commissions.

The action against the HDP has heightened concern among Western allies about the state of democracy in Turkey, a NATO member which aspires to join the European Union and which is a buffer between Europe and the conflicts in Syria and Iraq.

More than 110,000 officials - from soldiers and judges to teachers and journalists - have been detained or suspended since a failed military coup in July, in what Erdogan's critics say is a crackdown on all forms of dissent.

"I don't care if they call me dictator or whatever else, it goes in one ear, out the other. What matters is what my people call me," Erdogan said in a speech at an Istanbul university, where he was receiving an honorary doctorate.
Erdogan and the government are furious at what they see as Western criticism of their fight against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group, which has waged a three-decade insurgency for Kurdish autonomy and whose allied groups in Syria enjoy U.S. support in the fight against Islamic State.
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DaveFagan said:

Erdogan and Turkey are not trustworthy. They have invaded Syria and Iraq. Were the purchasers of Daesh OIL and suppliers of ISIS in Syria. They shot down a Russian aircraft and are a member of NATO. Now they are positioned outside Mosul and are likely to attack the Kurds that are the best fighting force against Daesh is Iraq.

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Yep. Its beginning to seem to me like Putin is the lesser of two evils (still evil, mind you). Hell, didn't the Kremlin post satellite images of Turkish supply convoys in ISIL-controlled regions of northern Syria sometime this or last year?

Abbazorkzog said:

Yep. Its beginning to seem to me like Putin is the lesser of two evils (still evil, mind you). Hell, didn't the Kremlin post satellite images of Turkish supply convoys in ISIL-controlled regions of northern Syria sometime this or last year?

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What's more, Erdogan's feud against Cumhuriyet roots in two (at least) of its reporters/editors having unveiled exactly that government involvement. Its chief editor (now no longer) fled to Germany at the time (June this year) rather than face a sentence of double life.

Meanwhile arrest orders have been issued for 16 more of its journalists in the attempt to shut it down altogether.

All on the accusation of having legitimized the recent coup attempt and supporting Kurdish terrorism.

Same or similar having happened by now to round about 170 Turkish media.

EU presses Turkey on human rights and other issues; President Erdogan demands membership decision
Roy Gutman - Nov 9
EU presses Turkey on human rights and other issues; President Erdogan demands membership decision - LA Times

The European Union on Wednesday criticized Turkey for democratic “backsliding” after an attempted coup and warned that its candidacy for membership in the bloc was in jeopardy if a crackdown on the judiciary, parliament and the media were not reversed.

In a bitter retort, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan challenged the 28-nation EU to decide once and for all if it wants Turkey, which has been seeking membership for decades, to join.

“They shamelessly say that Turkey’s EU negotiations should be reviewed,” Erdogan said. “Review it as soon as possible. But do not just review. Make your decision.”
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And the answer should be this:
"Turkey's request is hereby Suspended during the Rule RT Erdogan. A man who has Disgraced the memory of Ataturk, on this, the 78th Anniversary of his death. We look forward to reconsidering with favor Turkey's entry when this Regime vacates, and democracy and secularism return."

Chagos said:

Turkey isn't on the way to becoming a dictatorship, it is a dictatorship.

The groundwork was being laid well before the coup.

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Now he tweaks constitutional laws so as to expand his rule for the next decade and more:

Turkey's Erdogan could govern until 2029 under plans to change constitution | Reuters

Turks are barred from leaving Turkiye no matter that they have lost their job and no one will hire them after being arrested. Those that flee with their families seek refugee status abroad. Some come here. You should see the terror in their eyes...

I dont think that a people who thought they were going to join Europe take this lying down for long...

Chagos said:

What's more, Erdogan's feud against Cumhuriyet roots in two (at least) of its reporters/editors having unveiled exactly that government involvement. Its chief editor (now no longer) fled to Germany at the time (June this year) rather than face a sentence of double life.

Meanwhile arrest orders have been issued for 16 more of its journalists in the attempt to shut it down altogether.

All on the accusation of having legitimized the recent coup attempt and supporting Kurdish terrorism.

Same or similar having happened by now to round about 170 Turkish media.

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We're well into/past Megalomania now.
Will there even be a next Presidential election? Won't any other candidates be jailed?

Turkey’s Free Press Withers as Erdogan Jails 120 Journalists
By Rod Nordland
NY Times - Nov. 17, 2016
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/18/world/europe/turkey-press-erdogan-coup.html?_r=0

ISTANBUL — A prominent columnist wrote recently about how President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey hates cigarettes so much that he confiscates packs from his followers, lecturing them on the evils of smoking.

The columnist, Kadri Gursel, then urged his readers to protest the president’s anti-democratic ways by lighting a cigarette and not putting it out. For that, Mr. Gursel was arrested on Terrorism charges and is being held in pretrial detention, one of 120 journalists who have been jailed in Turkey’s crackdown on the news media since a failed coup attempt in July. There, he has the company of 10 colleagues from his newspaper, Cumhuriyet, the country’s last major independent publication. Among them are its editor and the paper’s chief executive, arrested as he stepped off a flight to Istanbul last Friday.

Turkey now has handily outstripped China as the world’s biggest Jailer of journalists, according to figures compiled by the Committee to Protect Journalists.

The jailings are the most obvious example of an effort to muzzle not just the free press, but free speech generally. More than 3,000 Turks have faced charges of insulting the president, including a former Miss Turkey, Merve Buyuksarac, who posted on Instagram a satirical rewording of the country’s national anthem as if Mr. Erdogan were singing:

I am like a wild flood, I smash over the law and beyond
I follow state bids, take my bribe and live.​

She was sentenced to 14 months in prison, suspended on the condition that she not repeat any offensive remarks.

The government and its supporters are behind a wave of demands to Twitter to remove offending posts, more than all other countries in the world put together, according to Twitter’s Transparency Report. (Of 20,000 Twitter accounts affected worldwide this year, 15,000 were Turkish.)

Several journalists — including Mr. Gursel, whose column was published three days before the coup attempt — have been retroactively accused of “Subliminal” messaging in support of the July uprising.".."
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Insanity.

Erdogan on USA/CBS Sunday Night's 60 Minutes video (13+ mins), and transcript.
Hope EUers can see it.

President Erdogan of Turkey's disillusionment with the U.S. - 60 Minutes - CBS News

Mullah Erdogan is encouraged by Trump's election and is hoping we send/extradite him another Opponent to add to his vast array of over 110,000 at least temporary detainees he's had since the July coup.
He's also making noises about amending Turkey's constitution so he can serve through 2029.
By that year it will be just he and Putin.

mbig said:

And I note the Turkish poster/s here no longer comment on these events. Arrest might certainly follow.
ErdoGov clearly monitors Social Media.

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And though we have not been the best of friends, I feel sorry for them and wish them well..

Maybe it would be quicker and easier if Erdogan posted a list of the people he is not going to arrest.

This story posted for it's 'aesthetic' value as much as it's politics.

Merve Buyuksarac, Ex-Miss Turkey Sentenced To 14-Moths In Jail For Insulting President Erdogan
Darpan News Desk
The Canadian Press, 31 May, 2016
Merve Buyuksarac, Ex-Miss Turkey Sentenced To 14-Moths In Jail For Insulting President Erdogan

ANKARA, Turkey — A court on Tuesday convicted a former Miss Turkey of insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan through social media postings and gave her a 14-month suspended sentence, amid deepening concerns that the country is swaying toward an increasingly authoritarian form of rule.

The court in Istanbul found 27-year-old model Merve Buyuksarac guilty of insulting a public official but immediately suspended the sentence on condition that she does not reoffend within the next five years.

Her lawyer, Emre Telci, said he would file a formal objection to the verdict and appeal her case at the Strasbourg, France-based European Court of Justice.

Buyuksarac, who was crowned Miss Turkey in 2006, was briefly detained last year for sharing a satirical poem on her Instagram account in 2014. Prosecutors deemed it to be insulting to Erdogan, who was still prime minister at the time. She has denied insulting Erdogan.

Since becoming president in 2014, Erdogan has filed close to 2,000 defamation cases under a previously seldom-used law that bars insulting the president. Free speech advocates say the law is being used aggressively to silence and intimidate critics.
[......]

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Erdogan is beyond insane.

We know what will happen next. When the prisons are full and there's no room to house any more, there will be false reports of mass uprisings used as an excuse to kill in the thousands. Much like what Qaddafi did at Abu Salim prison, but on a greater scale.

Sickening.

Serenity said:

Erdogan is beyond insane.

We know what will happen next. When the prisons are full and there's no room to house any more, there will be false reports of mass uprisings used as an excuse to kill in the thousands. Much like what Qaddafi did at Abu Salim prison, but on a greater scale.

Sickening.

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I don't much follow the goings-on in Turkey, but this Erdogan creep makes Saddam Hussein look like a piker.

Serenity said:

Erdogan is beyond insane.

We know what will happen next. When the prisons are full and there's no room to house any more, there will be false reports of mass uprisings used as an excuse to kill in the thousands. Much like what Qaddafi did at Abu Salim prison, but on a greater scale.

Sickening.

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Kobie said:

I don't much follow the goings-on in Turkey, but this Erdogan creep makes Saddam Hussein look like a piker.

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Erdogan doesn't compare well, neither with Saddam nor with Qaddafi.

One need see that he has over 50 pct of the population supporting him, catering to the narcissistic rage they share with him, over Turkey's national pride being constantly insulted. Whether such offence has actually been given or is simply just imagined plays little role when the card of national pride is played.

No need to go Godwinning, even where parallels are visible. Looking at Putin's Russia serves just as well.

Erdogan is planning a referendum on whether or not Turkey should even join the EU and it's conceivable that he hopes the Turks will say no (and he will use whatever influence to thus induce them). As such the current brouhaha in Brussels and European capitals over ending any further negotiation on Turkish admittance is a bit of a paper tiger, seeing how it'll offer him the opportunity to close the doors on any further outside interference with his ego-trip. Opening the doors for closer co-operation with Russia and China (and it couldn't happen to more worthy parties as in getting rid of the bubonic plague by shoving it onto someone
else:mrgreen.

Where I'm concerned, the ambitions of putting pressure on the country to mend its ways are laughable anyway, I always opposed its membership long before Erdogan even surfaced. Basically because it doesn't belong in Europe and, IMHO not in NATO either).

All that having been said, Erdogan has ways to go before reaching either Qaddafi's or, more pertinently, Saddam's body count. The latter (holding the greater significance) was responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths, possibly over a million, on account of the "real" First Gulf War against Iran alone. That's not counting the slaughter of his own before and after. Also he had nowhere near the public support, however fraudulently achieved, that Erdogan has. On the contrary he needed to suppress well over 60 pct of his people to stay in the driving seat.

But all comparisons take nothing from the fact that Erdogan is scum.