You’d think that after more than a century of being called the “sick old man of Europe”, the country could do better than this. These are pro-Erdogan bureaucrats speaking out against literacy and education.
Our secret is out. Yeah, biology is a cooking class for cannibals — why else do you think we need all those cadavers?
supposedly, the “coup” was military in nature, but…
only 6000 military personnel were “purged”.
meanwhile…
-nearly 2000 university deans and head administrators were purged
-over 15000 teachers and educators were purges
and in case you were thinking, “well, it’s all legal, right”
-3000 JUDGES purged.
I think most of Turkey is in denial that they are now living in a dictatorship that is also moving towards a theocracy.
I understand… hard to go from constant threat over military coups, to finally a democracy.. and now having to deal with this crap.
but.. denial is not going to help. Erdogan is purging people that disagree with him just as fast as Mussolini did.
The only good thing I can say about them is that I appreciate their candour. Paraphrased, “Once educated people stop voting for us.” With the right (wrong) mindset it’s no wonder education was hit heavily by the purges. Education is treachery. Erdogan and co aren’t the first to realise how troublesome an educated, well-informed public can be.
It would be bitterly ironic if the failed coup by part of the military turned into a successful coup d’état by Erdogan.
Nearly two centuries ago (this was the time when the Pope had a state comprising a large share of Italy) the Roman poet GG Belli wrote a sonnet where he gave voice to a catholic priest about studying :
…Che ppredicava a la Missione er prete?
“Li libbri nun zò rrobba da cristiano:
Fijji, pe ccarità, nnu li leggete.”
(Translation: what did the priest preach? Books aren’t made for Christians; Sons, please, please, don’t read them)
It would be bitterly ironic if the failed coup by part of the military turned into a successful coup d’état by Erdogan.
I think we have already seen something like a coup d’état—in a somewhat similar manner as the coup in Brazil.
It looks like Erdoğan and his associates had been planning this purge for a long time. One does not accumulate all those lists of names overnight. Of course, they may have just hacked the Gülen Movement Schools’ alumni list and are arresting any and all graduates they can find.
A failed coup has to be about the best excuse one could ask for. At my most paranoid I was wondering if it was a false-flag operation but decided that nobody is that stupid, well with the exception, perhaps, of an American president and or David Cameron.
When Erdogan started building a giant palace for himself, that was a great big red flag. He intends to be Turkey’s “president for life” like Putin in Russia and Assad in Syria. He wouldn’t have dared try it without US support.
I really hope they are getting the US nukes out of Turkey, now. Surprised Putin hasn’t suggested it already; he’s probably just sitting on his hands, waiting for the US’ face-saving gesture.
FWIW, the “sick man of Europe” was originally the Ottoman Empire. It’s not a label that’s been applied to post-WWI Turkey all that often AFAIK.
According to wikipedia, “sick man of Europe” is a label that’s been hung on various other troubled countries at various times since then, but the original usage for the latter day Ottoman Empire is what always comes to mind for me at least.
That said, this latest round of trouble could get Turkey the “sick man prize” again, at least among those comfortable with the idea that Turkey is part of Europe. I’m sure many would rather see it as just another Middle Eastern nation in turmoil.
I just found out I’ve been purged and fired by Erdogan.
Not for supporting the military coup, which I didn’t, but for being a member of the intelligensia.
Of course, this didn’t quite happen, since I’m not Turkish and living in Turkey. But it still seems pretty ominous.
Oh well, maybe next time. I wouldn’t trust President Trump any more than Vlad. Putin or Erdogan.
I haven’t followed the events in Turkey too closely.
But it does seem that Erdogan is setting up a Moslem-fascist dictatorship.
This won’t be much fun to live in and won’t end well.
At least one segment of US wingnuts, having no tactical sense whatsoever, claims the recent attempted coup was just for practice (by NATO, of course).
Wait, aren’t I supposed to be glad that the coup failed, because the ~rule of law~ was restored? I mean, Erdogan’s totally a democratically elected leader.
Sure, he might be a fascist islamist eternal president dictator, but he was elected so shut up and just vote him out, right?
If you can put up with the discord, it seems to be a great bargain for a vacation.
me bad: first glance looks to me like a resurgence of Ottoman Empire.
.
.
.
( ~ back to my corner ~ )
I don’t know those people in the video but I’m wondering if they really mean what they say, or are they being coerced to toe the party line or join their friends in a prison cell?
@14
The latter is totally a thing. Erdogan has a habit, even before now, of making people that criticize him too loudly either conveniently end up in prison or floating face-down on the Bosphorus.
raven@#9:
This won’t be much fun to live in and won’t end well.
It may not end for a looooong time. The US “realistic” and “practical” need to have a military base in the area will probably trump any concern for the people living under Erdogan. After all, dictators are stable, as long as you own them. (spit)
Marcus: similarly, the US and Europe are pretty happy with Sisi in Egypt.
Vivec: Erdogan is awful. A military dictatorship is awful. Both in fairly similar ways, though they would have targeted different sets of people.
The combination of Trump and Erdoğan has done Sweden a favour, anyway. There’s been a campaign by the right-wing in Sweden to promote Swedish membership of NATO (just in case you didn’t know, Sweden’s been neutral for over 200 years). These two have made the promoters of this idea look really stupid: Trump for his ‘if you don’t pay, we don’t honour the alliance’ threat (it’d mean more than doubling Sweden’s defence budget); and Erdoğan for reminding Swedes that they could find themselves roped into sending troops to attack Assad’s forces in Syria, partly to defend the flow of oil from ISIS to Turkey. In other words, a clear lesson about the exact degree of contempt a certain faction in US politics holds Europe in and about the dangers of having a loose cannon like Erdoğan potentially dictating NATO policy.
how can anyone actually praise ignorance?
I can understand compassion for the ignorant but wow.
It is not unique to the Turkish government, Trump himself said he like especially the ignorant. which is true of all would be authoritarian rulers.
How can any here that and not think that those saying it mean then no good?
uncle frogy
numerobis@#17:
Yeah, they like Sisi enough that Russia’s building him a pair of nuclear reactors. And (crickets)
I’d take the potential for a military dictatorship than a certain dictatorship under Erdogan any day.
Sorry, you’re not going to win me over when this is my friends and family suffering under this asshole. As far as I’m considered, any enemy of Erdogan is my friend right now.
Re: unclefrogy (#19):
1. Pragmatism. Sheer, bloody-minded pragmatism.
2. Wiithout much education, you’re probably not used to looking at issues from all too many angles. You might be more inclined to stick to the story told by your benevolent, democratically elected president for life*, who currenlty resides in the People’s Palace.** Hence 1).
I’d like to take this opportunity and join the many people who already regret 2016. Let’s learn what we can from the last eight months, throw the LHC into reverse*** and go back to 31/12/15, 23:59.
Still, I suspect when I wake up tomorrow it’ll still be 2016 – not again – and the nightmare will continue at the usual (albeit accelerating) pace.
*Whom you have the honour and privilege of re-electing every cycle.
**Oh, wait, that’s corrupted communism, which is totally different and evil to boot. My mistake.
***It’s the large green button labelled ‘Safe’ to avoid tampering and misuse.
To Paraphrase Frederik II of Prussia: “Thinking is the beginning of disobedience“
This will destroy Turkey’s economy.
@Vivec #11: Strawman and false dichotomy.
None here likes Erdogan.
The argument that was made is that a coup without popular support will only make things worse.
Like it or not, right or wrong, Erdogan is seen as the legitimate ruler by a very significant portion of Turks.
Not that Erdogan is good.
Not that Erdogan should continue ruling.
Not that anyone should be happy that he’s in power.
Also, the coupers killed a lot of *civilians*. But hey, they’re just numbers, not YOUR family or YOUR friends, so they don’t matter, right?
Even the *Kurds* condemned the coup.
But nevermind, your revenge fantasies against Erdogan are more important.
with all the wonderful news events so far including this ongoing drama involving Turkey, briexit, trump, and this worldwide violence ballet repeated now almost weekly I am reminded of these words by Yeats
what is to come is anybody’s guess but it ain’t likely santa.
uncle frogy
Fuck off F.O., call me when you country is being controlled by Turkish Mussolini.
Apparently, all Turkish students in The Netherlands also just got emails strongly encouraging them to return home (that’s Turkish citizens, not Dutch folks of Turk ancestry).
Wow. I imagine they’re under great threat if they return – I hope they can stay where they are.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/thousands-turkey-coup-prisoners-raped-8485304