Turkey is a member of NATO, apparent supporter of ISIS in Syria, and controls access to the Black Sea, important to Russia. They have one of the most capable militaries in the Middle East with the ability to make heavy military vehicles independent of the US. Turkey recently resolved its adversarial relationship with Israel.
Stay tuned
Unrelated, the Obama administration released the 28 classified pages of the 9/11 report on Friday, when nobody will notice it
Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said those responsible for what he described as an attempted coup by a faction within the military would pay the highest price.
He says they would not be allowed to do anything to interrupt democracy.
“Some people illegally undertook an illegal action outside of the chain of command,” Yildirim said in comments broadcast by private channel NTV.
“The government elected by the people remains in charge. This government will only go when the people say so.”
It isn’t yet obvious if President Erdogan was behind the military action or the object of it. The government of Turkey has been increasingly erratic, jailing people for saying things critical of the government.
State TV has been shut down and Internet access has been cut. The two bridges that connect east and west turkey have been closed by the military. The military are disarming police and detaining them
On an unrelated Technical note, the NY Times has done something really smart. When you include a YouTube link in a WordPress post, wordpress uses a defined standard to go fetch a preview image. When I added the link for the NYTimes story, WordPress went and gathered the image and summary automagically
NATO came down supporting Erdogan and so did his political opponents. According to Ergodan, the guy instigating the coup is a Muslim cleric currently living near Philadelphia.
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20160716_Turkey_s_president_blames_Muslim_cleric_in_the_Poconos_for_military_coup.html
The Daily Mail is floating a theory that Erdogan staged his own coup without a shred of evidence. What a pathetic excuse for a news outlet, and Drudge for carrying it
In the “be careful what you ask for” department, Gülan suggested he won’t fight extradition very hard (or he knows the CIA will protect him)
https://www.yahoo.com/news/turkish-cleric-gulen-says-erdogan-behind-coup-willing-063601092–business.html
If Gülen really inspired the coup, returning to Turkey might well trigger a more successful coup attempt and give him an international platform. Right now he is a relatively unknown guy living in self imposed exile