Russia's Ambassador Assassinated In Turkey: 'Allahu Akbar!'

Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrei Karlov was assassinated today by  Turkish special forces officer, 22-year -old Mevlut Mert Altintas. who was part of a security detail. Ambassador Karlov was delivering a speech at an art gallery in the Turkish capital of Ankara when he was shot several times in the back without warning, and then shot at least once more at close range as he lay on the floor. As he murdered the Ambassador, the assassin yelled 'Allahu Akbar' numerous times and quoted a follower of Mohammad, "We are the ones who pledged Bai'a (fealty) to Mohammed on the terms of jihad as long as we live.'' He also said in Turkish," "We die in Aleppo, you die here."

Three more people were wounded when the gunman shot into the crowd.

According to eye witnesses, the killer was captured alive by Turkish security, but it was reported afterwards by the heavily controlled Turkish press that he 'died in a shootout with the police.'

So, what's this all about?

Those keeping track on news in this part of the world may recall that Russia's relations with Turkey and its leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan have been dicey for some time. Russia took exception to Erdoğan's support of ISIS and other Syrian jihadist rebels, and relations cratered in November of 2015 after the Turkish Air Force shot down a Russian fighter jet that had briefly entered Turkish airspace en route from a bombing raid in Syria. After Russia's Putin ordered sanctions on importing Turkish goods and began threatening even harsher retaliation, Erdoğan apologized and relations have slowly improved, but only up to a point. Russia allowed the Turkish military into northern Syria, something that worked for Putin because it freed up manpower for the war in Syria's jihadis and pleased Erdoğan, who wanted to prevent the Kurds from establishing a state there.

But Erdoğan's Islamist heart still beats for the Syrian rebels, and it remains a point of contention that will likely come to a boil once Putin tells Erdoğan to take his military back over the border to Turkey.

The flash point, of course, is the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, where Islamist jihadis are being pushed out of their strongholds in the city. Any time you have this kind of urban warfare, civilians get killed. That's particularly true when jihadis are involved, since they will happily put civilians in danger by using their homes, hospitals and other civilian areas as military outposts. Jihadis will cheerfully use civilians as human shields, especially women and children, and with the aid of our corrupt media will exploit any casualties as 'bleeders,' for propaganda purposes. It's a common tactic, one we've seen used in Gaza and Lebanon among other places. It is simply how they operate.

Just an aside,remember that the majority of these jihadis are 'moderate' Syrian rebels from groups like the al-Qaeda affiliate al-Nusrah and are armed, trained and financially backed by the Obama Administration, Qatar and the Saudis.

The truth, of course is that at this point, the battle of Aleppo is almost finished and the jihadis there have one single objective...to delay things as much as possible so that the next flashpoint, the jihadi occupied city of Idleb near the Lebanese border can be fortified and reinforced.

So with this in mind, let's connect the dots.

Turkey, at this point is pretty much an Islamist dictatorship under the rule of Erdoğan and his AKP Party. He used the recent 'coup' attempt to cement his control over every aspect of Turkish society - the military, the police, the press, the government, the judiciary, you name it. Anyone remotely suspected of opposition to Erdoğan is rotting in Turkey's jails, especially if they were part of investigating or reporting on the many corruption scandals he and his family have been involved in.

Turkish public feeling has been manipulated quite thoroughly against Russia,Putin and Syrian Leader Assad over Aleppo, something that could not have happened without Erdoğan's consent.

Such things make a useful distraction for Erdoğan and his regime from other things going on in Turkey they might prefer Turks not concern themselves with just now. And in view of what Turkey's press has been serving up to them and the predominant Islamist mindset, I wouldn't be surprised if a number of Turks thought that Ambassador Karlov's murder was just what Russia had coming,particularly since Allah was invoked by the killer against the Russian infidels.

The killer himself, Mevlut Mert Altintas is a piece of the puzzle as well. He was no mere policeman,but a special forces officer, a member of Erdoğan's elite security squad. It's significant to me that several Turkish media outlets cited eye witnesses who saw him alive in police custody have all been scrubbed, and we're now being told he was killed in a shootout with police on the gallery's second floor. No witnesses except the police, of course and they're not talking. Neither is Mevlut Mert Altintas,since he's dead and can't be interrogated.

Erdoğan might well be ginning up public opinion to support him if Turkey decides to annex that juicy slice of northern Syria Putin allowed him to access with President Obama's connivance. Erdoğan is also undoubtedly aware of the Obama Administration's ongoing campaign to demonize Putin and Russia, and this could be his opening gambit to get Obama's support for Turkey if Erdoğan decides to challenge Russia.

Turkey Invades Syria - To Attack The Kurds, Not ISIS

Turkey's leader Tayyip Erdoğan has devoted some impassioned rhetoric to fighting ISIS, but until now that pretty much summed up Turkey's contribution...which makes sense if you think about it as I pointed out previously.

Actually, Turkey's relationship with the Caliphate has been relatively benign. Among other things, Erdoğan has allowed the purchase of ISIS oil by various Turkish middlemen, helping the terrorist army fund its operations. In some cases, those middle men include members of  Erdoğan's family. And through it all,  our 'NATO ally' Turkey has played a major role in allowing foreign fighters, weapons and oil to flow across the border.

What  Erdoğan has concentrated his military on is not ISIS but the Kurds, a U.S. ally and so far the most effective force on the ground battling ISIS.

On August 24th the Turkish military invaded Northern Syria. They used a contingent of 1,500 Turkish sponsored "Syrian rebels", aka Islamist jihadis from all over the world, accompanied by some Turkish special forces and twenty tanks to capture the city Jarablus at the Turkish-Syrian border. There's no question that this was pre-arranged in advance. ISIS moved all of its fighters and their families out of the city, and not a single shot was fired. After the 'victory' the Turkish flag was raised.

 Erdoğan's announced rationale is to get rid of "any terror activity on our borders."  He's also made it plain that he considers the Kurdish forces 'terrorists' and the equivalent of ISIS, even though the Kurds have been the ones actually fighting ISIS with the most success. He also issued an ultimatum to the Kurds to withdraw all of their forces and civilians below the Euphrates River.

Obviously, if keeping 'terrorists' away from his border was Erdoğan's chief concern, that could be accomplished by better border security on the Turkish side. A look at the map shows his real objective..to carve out a nice slice of Northern Syria and destroy the Kurds:


 

The Kurdish forces (labeled SDF by the U.S.) had previously advanced to the west and liberated the predominantly Kurdish city of Manbij from the Islamic State with the aid of U.S. air cover. And a new SDF Military Council was announced. But the man slated to head that  was assassinated a scant three hours  after the introductory press conference, with a fair amount of evidence pointing towards Turkish involvement in the murder.

Today, the Turkish military attacked Manbij, indiscriminately bombing and shelling civilians.The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 40 civilians were killed in strikes on two areas. That's probably a very low figure. According to al-Arabiyah, SDF spokesman Shervan Darwish said the airstrikes and shelling started overnight and continued Sunday along the front line, killing many civilians in Beir Khoussa and nearby areas. He said the bombing also targeted Amarneh village. He said 50 Turkish tanks were taking part in the offensive.

Keep two things in mind here. First, if Erdoğan's 'Operation Euphrates' is successful, the Kurds are pushed into ISIS held territory without the defensive protective shield of the Euphrates River. And second, remember that these are U.S. backed allies we're talking about that our 'ally' Turkey is attacking in force and attempting to push to an indefensible position.

Wouldn't you expect the Obama Administration to intervene?

Of course they won't. They're simply standing aside and allowing Erdoğan's armies to do whatever they want to the Kurds. In fact, while all this has been going on, Obama's VP Joe Biden was making penitence in Ankara to Erdoğan. As a sign of massive disrespect to America and the Obama regime, Biden was met at the airport by -wait for it- the deputy mayor of Ankara.

This disgusting exhibition isn't just limited to Obama. For 30 years, successive administrations, the Bushes, Clinton and now Obama have betrayed the Kurds, one of our few real allies in the region, usually in favor of Turkey. Obama and his minions seem to be paying no attention to the fact that Turkey is already working on an alliance with Iran and Russia, with Erdoğan establishing a direct line of communication from Ankara to Syria's Bashar Assad and Turkish MiT Secret Service director Hakan Fidan visiting Damascus to discuss 'mutual cooperation.'

President Barack Hussein Obama has proven once again that actually being a U.S. ally is not only worthless but potentially lethal. Unfortunately, the Kurds have found that out again the hard way. But don't believe for a minute this won't have serious repercussions on America in the future.

A Wedding In Turkey Bombed, 50 Dead - Whodunnit?

There was a particularly horrendous event in Gazientep, Turkey last night when a suicide bomb took th elives of 50 people at a wedding party and injured over 100 more. The suicide bomber involved was a young boy aged between 12-14 and the bomb was detonated electronically, probably by a throw away cell phone.

The screen shot above was from a video posted by one of the guests, who happened to have their phone out and pointed in the direction of the explosion at the exact moment of the blast. The video's available on Live Leak, but I see no reason to post it here.

The Turkish government was quick to blame ISIS. According to Turkey's leader Tayyip Erdoğan. "all the evidence points to ISIS."

What that evidence consists of hasn't been shared, nor, if things go as usual in today's Turkey, will it ever be.

But was it ISIS who pulled this off?

Certainly they're more than capable of it. But were they the ones who did this bombing? Let's look at a few interesting facts.






Since the attempted coup in Turkey, Erdoğan has responded brutally, using it as an excuse to remove or imprison as 'traitors' anyone questioning his virtually dictatorial rule. Think of this as Erdoğan's 'Night of the Long Knives.'  Judges, opposition political activists, businessmen and  journalists as well as military and police have been arrested, harshly interrogated and held for weeks without trial. Anyone whom has criticized or questioned the practices of   Erdoğan and his loyal AKP stooges in any degree  is being put out of the way on charges of 'treason.'

A major target has been anyone associated with Pennsylvania-based cleric Fethullah Gulen.  Gulen is a former ally of Erdoğan and the AKP who broke with him over corruption charges and Erdoğan's increasingly undemocratic practices. Erdoğan has been quite vocal about calling Gulen and his followers 'terrorists' and is blaming them for the attempted coup, something Gulen denies being any part of. Erdoğan has been hammering the Obama Administration to extradite Gulen, saying there is 'no difference between Gulen and ISIS.' 

A visit by Obama's Secretary of State to Turkey reportedly had Erdoğan's demand for Gulen's extradition as a major topic of discussion.

Another interesting thing to look at is how Erdoğan linked Gulen not just to ISIS but to the Kurdish PKK (The Kurdistan Worker's Party ) and PYD (The Democratic Union Party), claiming all of them are allied in a conspiracy to invade Turkey.

It's fairly obvious that, in my opinion, theories that Erdoğan pulled off the coup himself are (so far at least) without substance. But it is obvious that at the very least, he was fully aware of it in advance and allowed it to occur as an excuse to consolidate power and take out his political opposition. After all, Erdoğan himself has referred to the attempted coup as 'a gift from Allah'

So where does all this fit together? It begins to make sense when you find out that this was the wedding of a Kurdish member of The Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), who is in political opposition to Erdoğan and his AKP. According to the UK's Daily Mail, the wedding party was for one of its members, and the groom was injured.

Oddly enough, a lot of the terrorist attacks in Turkey seem to exclusively target Kurds. The deadliest was last October, when suicide bombers killed more than 100 people at a rally of pro-Kurdish and labor activists (read, Erdoğan's political opponents) in Ankara.

Another little detail to include in the mix. Turkey has not been fighting ISIS at all with its own military. They've merely been allowing U.S. airstrikes originating from the base America leases at Incirlik for a hefty baksheesh. Actually, Turkey's relationship with the Caliphate has been relatively benign. Among other things, Erdoğan has allowed the purchase of ISIS oil by various Turkish middlemen, helping the terrorist army fund its operations. And our 'NATO ally' Turkey has played a major role in allowing foreign fighters, weapons and oil to flow across the border, with Erdoğan only making a show of stopping the flow when it suits his interests.

While fighting ISIS may not be on Turkey's agenda, the Turkish military activity in Syria has actually been helping ISIS. It has exclusively focused on targeting the Kurdish militias, so far the most effective force on the ground battling ISIS. Erdoğan has always had designs on grabbing a slice of northern Syria for Turkey since the civil war started, but even more than that he wants to prevent an independent Kurdish enclave in Syria. Or anywhere else, for that matter. So in spite of the narrative about 'ISIS trying to increase ethnic tensions' the compliant Turkish press and Erdoğan's political stooges keep pushing,the truth is that both Turkey and ISIS are not only making a lot of money together, but essentially cooperating in fighting a mutual enemy, the Kurds.

Let's recap, shall we?

We have a horrendous bombing at the wedding celebration of some Erdoğan's political enemies at a time when he's cracking down brutally on any and all opposition. And at a time when he's pressuring the Obama Administration to extradite Fethullah Gulen to Turkey, a political rival he's branded as a terrorist and an ally of ISIS, there a convenient bombing that has the double benefit of terrorizing killing off some of his political opponents and providing added 'evidence' that Gulen is a terrorist that should be extradited back to the tender mercies of Erdoğan and what passes for Turkish justice.

For ISIS, the benefits of taking out some Kurds in Turkish territory pales when you factor in the risk factor of angering Erdoğan into a crackdown and losing a valuable market for their oil..unless they knew Erdoğan was in on it and signed off on the attack.

Again, ISIS is fully capable of this atrocity, but the facts on the ground point to Erdoğan being involved. Either he was fully aware ISIS was going to pull this off or the MİT (Turkish Secret Police) did this one on Erdogan's orders.

The Coup In Turkey And Why It Failed

 

Friday afternoon local time I began getting e-mails from acquaintances and correspondents in Turkey and elsewhere in the Middle East. They told of violence in the streets and military activity in the capitol of Ankara and in Istanbul, the city that sprawls between the Asian Turkey of Anatolia and the small piece of European Turkey on the other side of the Bosporus, the narrow strait that divides the Black Sea and the Aegean.

Was it some kind of ISIS or PKK attack?

As more time passed there were reports of an Army coup in Turkey underway. Had the Army finally tired of its neo-Ottoman Sultan Erdoğan?

As the news outlets in Turkey and the Middle East began filing reports, I noticed a few details that told me something had likely gone wrong. The first clue was that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was reported to be 'in a secure location' and inciting people to go into the streets and attack the soldiers attempting to pull off the coup...which they did.

This is very odd behavior for a coup. The very first rule of a military takeover is to get the leader you want to depose under your control and either dead or locked away. It's the first thing al-Sissi did in Egypt when he deposed Erdoğan's fellow Islamist Mohammed Morsi, and it's pretty much job one in any military coup. Among other things, it confuses the military players whom aren't involved as they wait to see what's happening or to receive orders.

The next odd note was for Erdoğan to call for civilians to attack elements of the Turkish military, and for them to comply eagerly. With the downward spiral of the Turkish economy, multiple instances of political corruption involving Erdoğan and with Erdoğan's increasingly authoritarian ways, he's not the most popular leader, especially in more cosmopolitan Istanbul. And the normal human behavior would be to lay low and let the military factions sort it out, not attack trained, armed troops. Yet, they did, and while much has been made of some civilians whom were shot, many of the soldiers involved in the coup seem to have reacted by simply retreating. One tank commander was even pulled out of his own tank by the mob and beheaded right on the spot while trying to do just that. (I've seen the footage. Trust me, you don't want to.)

The coup also was unusual in that it did not involve any senior officers and was not widespread. It mainly consisted of a few junior officers and enlisted men whom were primarily from Erdoğan's First Army. They were easily overpowered by troops loyal to Erdoğan and his AKP Party.

 

There are a number of stories out now claiming that Erdoğan staged his own coup. I highly doubt it. But what does seem obvious to me is that he had advance inside knowledge of it, that the men who attempted the coup believed that they were going to get more support from others in the military whom then either sat on their hands or decided to support Erdoğan, and that Erdoğan allowed the coup attempt to occur because it was beneficial to him.

 

As a result of the coup, a lot of elements Erdoğan considered disloyal have been flushed out, along with a number of others who simply oppose him politically or whom he finds convenient to lock up. Thus far, 2,745 judges and prosecutors whose loyalty to the Erdoğan regime has been questioned - especially those involved in the investigation and/or prosecution of the corruption surrounding Erdoğan - have been thrown in jail. Something like 2,839 soldiers have been arrested as well. Erdoğan is openly referring to the attempted coup as 'a gift from Allah' which pretty much gives the game away. Erdoğan will use it to quash any investigation of corruption and take out whatever remaining opposition there is to him. He's already calling for the reinstatement of Turkey's death penalty.
Think of this as Erdoğan's 'Night of the Long Knives.'

Another benefit for Erdoğan is that it gives him an excuse to demand the extradition to Turkey of a major political opponent, Pennsylvania-based cleric Fethullah Gulen. Gulen is whom Erdoğan is blaming for the attempted coup.

Given that our President Barack Hussein Obama is one of the Islamist Erdoğan's best friends among foreign leaders, Erdoğan might very well get what he wants, event though Gulen has spoken out against the coup and claims he had nothing to do with it.

And Erdoğan has a powerful card to play as well to obtain this. America's Incirlik Air Base in Turkey has been completely shut down and remains so. The power has been cut off, no flights in or out are being allowed and 1,500 Americans are stranded there. All operations against ISIS have been postponed, meaning that the Iranian controlled militias have lost a part of their main edge against ISIS in Iraq.

In any event, Erdoğan is going to remain in power for now, and Turkey will become even less free and democratic and a lot more Islamist, exactly the opposite of what the Turkish Republic's Founder, Kemal Ataturk created after World War One.

This kind of development in a country with the largest conventional army in Europe is not something to ignore.

Con Game: Turkey's Faux Pose Of Restoring Ties With Israel

There has been a great deal of speculation about Turkey restoring ties with Israel, based on leaked details of initial meetings between representatives of the two nations that were held at Islamist Turkish leader Tayyip Erdoğan's request.

For those of you who need a quick recap, Israel and Turkey had very close ties until Erdoğan and his Islamist AKP Party took over in 2002, after which they deteriorated rapidly. The end came in 2010 when the Turkish government sponsored a 'humanitarian aid' fleet designed to break the Israeli blockade of Hamas-ruled Gaza. When the Israeli navy intercepted the ships and instructed them to proceed to an Israeli port so their cargoes could be examined, they all complied without incident except one, the Mavi Marmara.

That ship was loaded with IHH terrorists who were deliberately seeking a confrontation. After refusing repeated orders to put into port, the ship was boarded only to find that the crew of the Mavi Mamara had planned an ambush and attacked the unarmed sailors with knives, iron bars, clubs and firearms.



The Israelis sent Naval commandos to board the ship to rescue the injured sailors and take over the ship. This time the results were different, with 9 of the crew of the Mavi Mamara ending up getting themselves killed when they attacked the commandos. Out of the entire flotilla of ship attempting to run the blockade, only two were found to have small amounts of what could be called 'humanitarian aid. Most of them, like the Mavi Mamara carried nothing and were simply seeking to run the blockade.

In spite of Israel's attempt to placate Turkey and resolve the matter, Erdoğan used this as an excuse to break relations completely. Even an apology to Erdoğan that US President Barack Obama arm twisted out of Israeli PM Netanyahu didn't change anything, and Erdoğan subsequently proved on many occasions that he dislikes Jews and Israel almost as much as he hates Kurds.

So what's behind the sudden attempts to kiss and make up?

Turkey's shooting down of a Russian fighter on November 24th that was in Turkey's air space for something like 17 seconds was a major overreach. Vladimir Putin made it quite clear that he regarded the attack as unprovoked aggression and that there would be significant consequences. So Erdoğan has now come scurrying back to his former friends - NATO, and Israel. Ankara is also concerned about Iran's growing power and feels it shares a common enemy with Israel there.

The original negotiations, carried out in Switzerland went something like this. Israel tentatively agreed to set up a compensation fund - unconfirmed reports put it at around $20 million (I personally doubt it was anything like that much) for the families of the 9 killed on the Mavi Mamara. Turkey would bar Hamas from Turkey, and the two countries would also exchange ambassadors.

Even more important, Turkey and Israel would collaborate on a gas pipeline to supply gas to Turkey and Europe from Israel's massive Mediterranean gas strikes.

While Israel's Hebrew press went wild over this, reality has now reared its ugly head.



Instead of distancing itself from Turkey's friends Hamas, the first thing Erdoğan and Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu did was to invite Hamas politburo chief Khalid Mesha'al to Ankara for a nice cozy chat over the weekend. And then Davutoğlu gave a press conference which spelled out clearly that whatever occurred in Switzerland, the AKP's attitude towards Israel hadn't changed one bit.

“No one is more sensitive on Gaza, Palestine, than us. Our sole goal is to bring solutions to the problems of our Palestinian brothers. This is the main objective behind our talks for the normalization of our relationship with Israel. We will not take any steps that would sadden Palestine and Gaza but we won’t hesitate to take every step that would be to their benefits, no matter what they say,” Davutoğlu told his parliamentary group on Dec 22. He also exchanged views with Hamas official Khaled Meshal about Turkey’s process with Israel in a meeting over the weekend. {...}

“Turkey has become the first state to ever enjoy the honor of making Israel formally apologize over such an incident. We have not given concessions to anybody while defending our rights,” Davutoğlu said, adding that no final agreement had been reached but talks were continuing positively with Israel.

in classic Middle East bargaining style, the Turks, you see,now want something else to finalize the deal. They want Israel to break the blockade of Gaza and allow Turkey to have what some sources referred to as 'a foothold in Gaza', and to be the intermediary between Israel and Hamas.

As Netanyahu made clear, that isn't going to happen, especially since Turkey has made no move to oust Hamas, who now have their headquarters in Istanbul. The only tangible sign of that was the expulsion of Saleh al-Arouri, a senior figure in Hamas’ military arm who operated terrorist cells in Judea and Samaria from there. There's no indication that this is anything but a temporary measure, since he could return any time. In fact, at least one of my sources tells me there's a decent amount of evidence that this particular move was even arranged in advance with Mesha'al and al-Arouri. The Hamas headquarters haven't been closed down and there are still plenty of Hamas figures still in Turkey.

Even without getting rid of the Gaza Blockade, the deal is a good one for Turkey but not nearly so good for Israel. The AKP and Erdoğan are not to be trusted one iota when it comes to Israel because they will always return to their Islamist love affair with the likes of Hamas, and their innate hatred of Israel. It's in their DNA. And siding with them against Russia and Putin is a bad idea, not to mention the Israel-friendly Kurds. Additionally, the idea of a pipeline running through Turkish territory could leave Israel open to blackmail and even sabotage in the event Erdoğan decides to turn the screws. There are other customers for Israel's gas and other ways of getting it to them.

The Iran factor shouldn't be counted on too much either. Turkey was notorious for violating the sanctions on Iran, and given Turkey's poor economy, there's no guaranty they could be trusted there either. As a matter of fact, Turkey hasn't exactly been much of an ally to NATO since the AKP took over, and there's no reason Israel should expect anything better from Erdoğan's Turkey at this point.

Far better to just agree to limit this to the exchange of ambassadors and see if Erdoğan is actually serious or if he simply wants to get whatever he can out of Israel before torpedoing relations like he did the last time.

Personally, I'd bet it's the latter.

Turkish Delight - Erdoğan's AKP Party Loses Majority

Turkey's Islamist ruler Recep Tayyip Erdoğan received a rebuke from the weekend's parliamentary elections, which saw his AKP Party lose it's iron clad hold on Turkey's Parliament for the first time in years.

While the AKP still has the most seats, it will now have to form a coalition with far more moderate factions in order to govern. And Erdoğan's plan to turn the largely ceremonial office of president he now holds into a sort of neo-Ottoman caliphate are dead and gone, at least for now.

The AKP won 41 percent of the vote, according to TRT, a state-run broadcaster, down from nearly 50 percent during the last national election in 2011.That gave them 258 seats, far short of a simple majority or the 330 seats they needed to shove through more 'constitutional reforms.'

In second place was the Republican People's Party (CHP), the chief secular opposition. They increased their share of the vote to 25.16%, and 132 seats.

The Nationalist Movement Party (MHP)is something of a right wing populist party. They won 16.5% and 80 seats. They are generally speaking, not fans of Erdoğan.

The real surprise in the election was the performance of the People’s Democratic Party (HDH). This is a largely Kurdish party which aligned itself with women, gays and secular Turks to win almost 13% of the vote, and 80 seats.

The map below is fairly revealing:



Majorities according to provinces:      AKP      CHP      MHP      HDP


The AKP, as always commands a majority in rural Anatolia, the CHP commanded majorities in 'European Turkey', the large. mostly secular cities and the mostly Kurdish HDH won out in Eastern Turkey.

First and foremost, this was a referendum on Erdoğan's plan to vastly increase the powers of the presidency. Having seen Erdoğan already pervert Turkey's courts and its military for his own design, most Turks were wary of giving him any more power. The financial scandals surrounding Erdoğan and the continuing decline in the Turkish economy, both of which I mentioned on these pages previously also took a toll.

What happens next will be interesting.The current leader of the AKP is none other than Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, who has always been Erdoğan's stooge. Since the AKP is still the largest party in Parliament, Davutoğlu would normally go to Erdoğan, the president and ask for permission to negotiate a coalitions government with one of the other parties.

Ah, but there are problems with that. The CHP and HDH would demand assurances that Erdoğan drop his plans to create an autocratic president's office. They would also insist on re-opening the dropped corruption cases against the four AKP ex-ministers, cases that implicate Erdoğan and his son. The AKP was able to quash those cases when they had their former majority but they don't any more, and a coalition including either of these players would force the issue.

The Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) is another possibility, and their party's leader, Devlet Bahçeli, hasn't closed the doors to a deal but made their conditions to join a coalition with AKP clear. They too want Erdoğan to drop his aspirations for a powerful president's office. And they also want an end to the government's overtures towards Turkey's Kurdish minority for a peaceful settlement of grievances.

There are also doubts whether the MHP would go along with the continued whitewash of the corruption cases.

Which leads us to a third interesting possibility.

According to Turkish law, Davutoğlu has 45 days to form a government. If he can't the country goes to new elections.

There's always the possibility that Erdoğan will have Davutoğlu go through the motions of forming a coalition for a couple of months while Erdoğan pulls wires, calls in favors and arranges things so that when Turkey goes to new elections, the end result is very different from what happened this weekend.

 

We'll see.

BREAKING: Obama's 'Coalition Of Partners' On ISIS Chrashes And Burns

 


President Obama's ridiculous speech last night on combating the Islamic State had these main components - making sure to mention that Islamic State was neither a state or Islamic, airstrikes on Iraq and Syria, reassuring his Leftist base that no U.S. ground troops would be participating, and this:

This is our strategy. And in each of these four parts of our strategy, America will be joined by a broad coalition of partners.

Apparently President Obama opened his mouth before actually taking roll call on those 'allies.'

 

The Brits, supposedly our closest strategic ally have already said they won't do any airstrikes in Iraq and have expanded that 'no thanks': to include Syria:

Britain’s foreign secretary says his country won’t participate in airstrikes on Syria, following an announcement from Washington that it would begin hitting targets inside the country.

Speaking Thursday after talks with his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Philip Hammond said Britain won’t be “revisiting” the issue after Parliament decided last year against participating in airstrikes.

And apparently Steinmeier's presence was no accident. The Germans opted out too.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told a news conference in Berlin that Germany has not been asked to take part in the air strikes and would not be participating. “To quite clear, we have not been asked to do so and neither will we do so,” Steinmeier said.

Even more importantly, President Barack Obama's dear Islamist friend Turkey not only said it will not participate, but won't even let American forces use bases we lease in Turkey to attack The Islamic State:

Turkey will refuse to allow a US-led coalition to attack jihadists in neighbouring Iraq and Syria from its air bases, nor will it take part in combat operations against militants, a government official told AFP Thursday.

"Turkey will not be involved in any armed operation but will entirely concentrate on humanitarian operations," the official said on condition of anonymity.

Turkey's non-participation is key, because it borders both Iraq and Syria and has a reasonably strong, U.S. equipped military.

The Turks are refusing to get involved because when Mosul fell to The Islamic State, so did the Turkish Consulate and 49 hostages...and also because they don't want to encourage the Kurds because of their own suppressed Kurdinh minority in Turkey. And because they have backed The Islamic State from the start against Assad. You'd think someone might have whispered this  in the ear of our prevaricator-in-chief before he asked them to join up.

So who's left? The French? Possible, in a very limited way, but doubtful...remember all those French Muslim voters and the upcoming elections.Hollande and the socialists will need every vote they can get.

New Europe? The Poles, Baltic States, Georgia and Ukraine all contributed to Iraq and Afghanistan, but after the way the Obama Administration has treated them and what with Putin on the prowl, faggeddabbouddit.

There's the Sunni Arab states, and Secretary of State Kerry is headed there as I write this. The Saudis and the GCC may help,but again in a limited way and certainly not with boots on the ground. Aside from the fact that one of them Qatar is actually funding the Islamic State and has been for some time, there's also the problem of Iran, the president's new friend. The Saudis and the Emirates are smart enough to know even if Obama and Kerry aren't that if ISIS is taken off the board, there's no obstacle to Iran achieving its long time goal of a Shi'ite nuclear armed bloc.

They've long since stop trusting Obama's assurances on the matter. It remains to be seen what Kerry can promise them to get them fully involved. Certainly it won't be with boots on the ground.

The same applies to the Egyptians who are not exactly Obama fans at this point and have their own jihadis to deal with at home and next door in Libya thanks to this president. They won't be fighting in Iraq and Syria in any large way, and anything they do it will be for a steep price demanded of Obama.

That leaves Iran, Iran's Shi'ite militias, Hezbollah, the Iraqi army none of whom have been able to stop Islamic State's fighters thus far. And the Kurds, who don't trust Obama and will concentrate on defending their own territory. Oh, and about1,700 US 'advisers' (the president glossed over those in his speech) who are basically in the same position our advisers in Vietnam were circa 1962. 

Islamic State isn't going to be defeated by air strikes, and those are the boots on the ground. And is the U.S. going to act as the Shi'ite air force now, taking sides in the sectarian conflict in the region? I do seem to remember a certain freshman senator from Illinois and his Democrat buddies criticizing President Bush for getting us involved in a sectarian civil war in Iraq,don't you?

 I hope I'm wrong, but just watch as he sends more 'advisers' in to cover his chest thumping rhetoric.

President Obama has no real strategy, except to make it look like he's doing something and improve his terrible poll numbers before the election to try and hold the senate. As always, everything is about politics with this president - not the country.

 

UPDATE: It appears that just as I predicted, the Arab Countries are not entirely on board either. Can it be they too no longer trust this president? I guess when you lie to people habitually...

Whoopsie.

Some 'coalition'.

Will Eric Holder Extradite A Hamas Terrorist Involved In Murdering A US Citizen?

 

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder had received a formal request to extradite a Hamas official involved in the kidnapping and murder of an American citizen.

Israeli civil rights attorney, Nitsana Darshan-Leitner sent a letter to Attorney General Holder and  Assistant AG Leslie Caldwell, requesting the Department of Justice extradite Hamas West Bank commander, Saleh al-Arouri, for his role in the kidnapping and murder of Naftali Fraenkel, one of the three teens abducted and slain in the 'operation' in Israel that Hamas has claimed credit for.

 

Al-Arouri, who runs Hamas in the West Bank from his country of residence, Turkey, was seen on a video last week, making a speech at the fourth conference of the World Union of Islamic Sages in the Islamic Republic, and saying openly  that Hamas’ Qassam Brigades had carried out the June kidnapping and killing of Fraenkel and the two other  Israeli teenagers, Eyal Yifrach and Gil-ad Shaar.

Al-Arouri claimed that he was "speaking on behalf of Hamas leader Khaled Masha'al.”

The Israelis have also captured one member of the three man cell, Hussam al-Qawasmi, who confessed and gave evidence on Al-Arouri's involvement.

Darshan-Leitner, Founder and Director of the Shurat HaDin–Israel Law Center, a non-governmental organization (NGO), mentioned the video in her letter to the Attorney General and asked the Department of Justice to “take all necessary steps to compel the government of Turkey to extradite” as well expresses confidence “that an investigation into the evidence of the kidnapping and murder of Fraenkel will result in the indictment and extradition of senior Hamas leader al-Arouri from Turkey.”

According to existing treaties between the U.S. and Turkey,  the Islamic Republic is legally obligated  to extradite al-Arouri if he “committed a criminal act that would be punishable by Turkey, had the offense been perpetrated within its territorial jurisdiction,” wrote Darshan-Leitner. “The US is the only country that can bring Arouri to justice.”

Israel and Turkey likewise have a similar extradition treaty, but the Islamist  Erdoğan government has repeatedly refused to honor it, something understandable if you look at  President Tayyip Erdoğan's support of Hamas, history of anti-semitic outbursts and anti-Israel statements.

Once al-Arouri has been extradited and tried in America, Israel could then request that the US extradite him to Israel to face charges in the kidnap and murder of the other two Israeli teens.

Well, the Obama Administration came out with a number of sympathetic statements and pro-forma condemnations when the three boys were first kidnapped and then murdered by Hamas. Now they have a chance to do something concrete to bring the murderer of an American citizen  to justice. Will they?

 

Before you answer, here's a factoid to chew on. According to U.S. law, the FBI is required to investigate the death of an American citizen overseas. That policy has never been implemented when either Fatah or Hamas have been the perpetrators.

Turkey's PM Erdoğan Almost Admits Armenian Genocide,Talks About 'Shared Pain'

Turkey's Islamist PM Tayyip Erdoğan is definitely under strain. Today, on on the eve of the day Armenians world wide memorialize the victims of the Turkish genocide that occurred in 1915, Erdoğan became the first Turkish politician in history to actually admit that something evil just might have occurred:

Turkey has issued a first-ever statement offering condolences to the descendants of slain Ottoman Armenians just a day before of 99th anniversary of the mass killings of Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Empire during World War I.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan highlighted the “shared pain” endured during the 1915 events in a historic statement April 23 on the Armenian issue, expressing condolences on behalf of the Turkish state to the grandchildren of Armenians who lost their lives “in the context of the early 20th century.”

In a first-of-its-kind statement released by the Prime Minister’s Office, Erdoğan said April 24 carries “particular significance for our Armenian citizens and for all Armenians around the world.”

Speaking to reporters April 23, Erdoğan said it was always Turkey that had taken steps for reconciliation but that it was now the Armenian side’s turn to take steps toward Turkey.

“It is indisputable that the last years of the Ottoman Empire were a difficult period, full of suffering for Turkish, Kurdish, Arab, Armenian and millions of other Ottoman citizens, regardless of their religion or ethnic origin,” wrote Erdoğan.

“Millions of people of all religions and ethnicities lost their lives in the First World War,” he added. “Having experienced events which had inhumane consequences – such as relocation – during the First World War, should not prevent Turks and Armenians from establishing compassion and mutually humane attitudes among towards one another.”

This is typical Islamist doublespeak. Until now, rather than 'taking steps towards reconciliation', the Turks have denied the Armenian genocide ever occurred, imprisoned and even murdered Turkish writers and academics who wrote or spoke about it, and leaned on foreign governments who passed or attempted to pass resolutions mentioning it.

And contrary to Erdoğan's statement, it was the Turks doling out those 'inhumane consequences' and Greeks, Assyrians, and Armenians who were almost exclusively at the receiving end.

But this is still a surprising first step for a Turkish leader in even acknowledging what happened. An attempt at reparations by Turkey to the descendants of genocide victims similar to what Germany provided to Holocaust victims would be a necessary second one to keep the process going.

Turkey's Erdogan Caught On Tape Discussing How To Hide Illegal Cash

 

The Turkish soap opera is continuing, with the latest development being recordings of a conversation between PM Tayyip Erdoğan and his son Bilal discussing how to hide huge sums of cash on the day police raided houses as part of a corruption inquiry into Erdogan’s government on December 17, 2013.

The tapes, posted on YouTube, have Erdoğan asking his son Bilal to hide millions of euros in cash stashed at several houses and turn them into "zero". The clips went viral on YouTube, receiving over two million hits.

In one conversation, Erdoğan can be heard briefing Bilal about the raids, which ended in top businessmen and the sons of former cabinet ministers being arrested on charges of bribery, gold smuggling and illicit dealings with Iran.

Bilal at one point can be heard saying: "There is 30 million ($41 million) euros more."

Erdoğan, of course is denying that the tapes of the wiretapped conversations are real, calling them a “dirty immoral fabrication” and “completely false”, while Erdoğan's Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ repeated the claim and said those responsible will be "brought to justice".

Meanwhile, Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), after an emergency meeting issued a statement saying that the government has lost its legitimacy and called on Erdoğan to step down.CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu called the prime minister "prime thief".

And the leaders of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) also held a meeting under the leadership of chairman Devlet Bahçeli, after which Bahçeli said “the talks between the Prime Minister and his fugitive son are beyond our capacity of understanding.” Bahçeli also demanded that Erdoğan be brought to justice.

At this point of course, it doesn't really matter whether the tapes are faked or not. Too much has already come out about the vast corruption Erdoğan, his son, other members of his AKP party and their families and cronies were involved in for this to seem all too plausible, and Erdoğan's inept attempts to quash the investigation and his brute force against protesters and jailing of journalists and opposition figures and his mass purge of police and government prosecutors involved in investigating the scandal has already destroyed any credibility he and the AKP has, especially since they once made 'clean government' their slogan.

And more to the point, Erdoğan's other boast, a booming Turkish economy has also collapsed. This was always going to happen fairly soon because of Turkey's huge credit bubble, but the scandals have accelerated things.

Essentially, Erdoğan and the AKP tried to pull off what a lot of banana republics in South and Central America have already failed at - buying popularity through social programs paid for by massive debt accumulation while a corrupt government and its cronies fatten off the proceeds.

At this point, Turkey can't attract buyers for its debt without offering much higher interest rates..and that will explode the credit bubble that has passed for Turkey's 'booming economy' since Erdoğan and the AKP took over.

In fact, the meltdown is already in progress. In an effort to support the falling lira, Turkey's central bank(Türkiye Cumhuriyet Merkez Bankasi) raised interest rates last month after Erdoğan pledged to keep them low. Inflation is at 7.75% (at least) and rising, and the central bank's 10% rate isn't enough of a premium to attract buyers for its debt or strengthen the lira all that much. Since a lot of Turkey's debt is now in foreign currency, and the lira's decline continues, the interest on Turkey's debt is actually increasing, and will have to be covered by even higher local interest rates.And the cost of imports increases.

This is already being felt on the Turkish street,with higher prices and rising interest rates and increased payments on consumer and business loans. Unemployment is growing too, since a lot of that credit bubble fed construction projects which aren't being done anymore since the money isn't there to fund them. Turkey admits to a rate just under 10%. The growing economic distress along with the sordid details of AKP corruption and cronyism have melted away a great deal of Erdoğan's constituency.

Erdoğan himself is making a point of blaming what he calls 'the interest rate lobby', by which he means
'Jewish financiers' rather than his own government's mismanagement and kleptomania. That also is no great surprise in an Islamist leader who has demonstrated his hatred for Jews more than once and torpedoed what once was a fairly close relationship between Turkey and Israel.

Where this goes is anyone's guess. No real replacement for Erdoğan has surfaced, and because of his purge of the military they aren't going to be there to stop Turkey from going over the cliff. The chief opposition, Erdoğan's former allies the Gulen group have a lot of media influence, but no real  political forces  on the ground. The AKP's Ponzi scheme is going to continue to unravel, while Erdoğan is going to continue to try to double down by going even more paranoid and autocratic and trying to appeal to the hard core extreme of his followers.

This will not end well.

Update: The Latest On Turkey

 

The crisis in Turkey continues to foment, as Turkey's Islamist leader Tayyip Erdoğan continues to try and quash massive corruption scandals reaching the highest levels of his government, including Erdoğan himself.

Major unrest broke out in several Turkish cities,especially in Istanbul, where police used tear gas, water cannons, batons and plastic bullets to break up anti-Erdoğan demonstrations.



As I reported previously, the rumor that Erdoğan had summarily removed prosecutors investigating the massive scandals and replaced them with Erdoğan loyalists is unfortunately true. Public prosecutor Muammer Akkas, who was overseeing the inquiry, was removed from the case. In a letter to the Turkish media he accused the government of actively hindering the investigation. "The judiciary was subjected to open pressure by the police force, and the execution of court orders was obstructed," he said.

What he was referring to was the wholesale transfer of police officers who were involved in the investigation and their replacement by cops loyal to Erdoğan and the AKP.That included Istanbul police chief Hüseyin Çapkin.

These new police officers refused to comply with the prosecutor's orders to take more suspects into custody, a list of 41 high-ranking businessmen and officials, according to the Turkish daily Hürriyet.There's also evidence that the Erdoğan informed the suspects which gave them an opportunity to destroy evidence or even to leave Turkey for awhile until the scandals blow over.

Erdoğan was forced to fire four high ranking cabinet ministers after their sons were arrested following a long-running investigation into allegations of corruption. Along with 22 others they're awaiting trial on charges including bribery, selling government assets at deep discounts to well-connected companies and illicit money transfers to Iran,among other things.

Erdoğan and his own family are implicated at well in a scandal concerning TÜRGEV, an Islamic educational foundation where Erdoğan's son Bilal sits on the board.The foundation claims they used money they received tax free to build dormitories for students,when in fact the money came from the Fatih district municipality, which is headed by an AKP mayor who's now also been jailed. What Erdoğan’s family did with the money they claimed was spent on the dormitory is unknown.

TÜRGEV is also suspect for receiving state-owned land free of charge or at a much lower price than the land was worth.

And Bilal Erdoğan is also implicated in the suspicious land worth $1 billion belonging to the Etiler Police Academy that was sold to a company called Bosphorus without a public tender for a giveaway price of $460 million. Questions about whom exactly is involved with Bosphorus or what Bilal's part in the transaction were have yet to be answered.

Today, Erdoğan announced yet another purge of Turkey's police force, with 350 police officers removed from their positions in the capital of Ankara on Tuesday and police commanders ousted from their posts in at least nine other cities around the country, the government Anadolu news agency reported.

According to the Turkish press, most of the police officers affected were working in departments that battle terrorism, smuggling and organized crime. The ones who weren't fired outright were reassigned to police traffic.

Another thing most of these police had in common were connections to Fethullah Gülen and the Hizmet movement, former Islamist allies of Erdoğan and the AKP but now a faction that has allied itself with other groups opposing Erdoğan's increasingly authoritarian and dictatorial rule. The break occurred after Erdoğan began working to eliminate the group's dershanes, prep schools that serve as a major source of money recruitment and influence for the Gülenists and ousting Gülenists in power.

The latest challenge to Erdoğan comes from two fronts. First, opposition calls to re-try members of the Turkish military who were convicted on trumped up evidence of plotting a coup against Erdoğan.

Erdoğan and the AKP essentially purged the military, which constitutionally was charged with protecting Turkey's secular government since the time of Ataturk and the founding of the modern Turkish republic after WWI. Two years ago, almost two hundred high ranking military officers and others, including journalists were convicted in what amounted to show trials of plotting to overthrow the government. The stench was so bad that a whole cadre of Turkish officers, including the commanders in chief of the army, navy and air force resigned.

Erdoğan, faced with calls for retrials by the opposition is said to be considering the idea of retrial, especially since thanks to his 'reforms' AKP loyalists now control the judiciary as well.But he faces a slight problem here. Erdoğan's standard line lately has been that the trials were conducted by his former allies in Hizmet. But he championed the trials, signed off on the outcomes and approved of the results.

So Erdoğan would be faced with admitting to the nation that he approved and supported something he knew was false if the officers are acquitted, or need to cease blaming Gülen and Hizmat if the verdicts stand.

The other problem Erdoğan has to deal with is a lot more basic. The Turkish economy is finally on the skids as the huge credit bubble that supported it is finally deflating, and the huge current-account deficit on large gas and oil imports is beginning to be felt. meanwhile, the Turkish stock market is plummeting and the Lira's value versus the dollar had almost been cut in half while th ecost of staples in increasing steadily.

Erdoğan and the AKP's major claim to power have been clean government and a growing economy. Both appear to be inflated and on shaky ground.

Turmoil In Turkey; Is Erdoğan Finished?

 

An important story bubbling under the headlines concerns Turkey's Islamist leader Tayyip Erdoğan, and a huge corruption scandal that contains juicy elements like money laundering using the state-owned bank Halkbank with Iran as a conduit, corruption at high levels of Erdoğan's AKP Party,nepotism, his implication in possible personal corruption, major authoritarian overkill, and major infighting within the Islamist coalition itself.

As you can imagine from just that small taste, this is a very complex story and it's still unfolding, but here's the gist of it.

About ten days ago, police in Istanbul and Ankara carried out a wave of arrests that included powerful,well established businessmen with ties to the AKP, the sons of three cabinet ministers, and the head of Halkbank.The arrests were the result secret corruption investigations that were underway for a year or more, and what is even more interesting is that the investigations were carried out without informing Erdoğan, or even some of supervisors in the justice ministry.

How that happened is a tale in itself.

When Erdoğan and the AKP took over Turkey a decade ago,they pulled off a marriage of convenience with another popular Islamist faction, the Gülenists, headed by Islamic cleric Fethullah Gülen. While Erdoğan's AKP has its Islamist roots in the Muslim Brotherhood, the Gülenists are much more nationalistic and Turkic in their outlook.

The Gülenists were willing partners with the AKP over the past decade in turning Ataturk's secular republic into an Islamist state. But as essentially the number two men in an increasingly more dictatorial Turkey, as time went on there was much more pressure on the Gülenists by the AKP. Fethullah Gulen, their charismatic leader (pictured above with Erdoğan) finally fled Turkey in the late 1990s and now lives in exile in rural Pennsylvania. Erdoğan and the AKP opened major hostilities with the Gülenists recently by targeting and ousting Gülenists in power and by seeking to eliminate their dershanes, prep schools that serve as a major source of money and influence for the Gülenists.

Another major flashpoint between Erdoğan and Gülen occurred last July with Turkey's Gezi Park protests. These were major riots and demonstrations against Erdoğan and the AKP government, a movement the Gülenists were active in. Erdoğan was able to quash the protests, but he had to use extreme brutality to do it. That alienated large sections of Turkey's population.

In response, the Gülenists formed an alliance with Turkey's secularists, who simply can't stomach Erdoğan's increasingly autocratic rule and find the Gülenist's brand of more nationalist, Turkic-oriented Islamism much more palatable. They began attacking him and the AKP in the Gülenist-owned media, and it was Gülenists in the security apparatus along with Erdoğan's other enemies who carried out the investigations and leaked them publicly.

What was found was evidence of a huge money laundering scandal involving the trading of oil and gas for gold in violation of the Iran sanctions.

Economy Minister Zafer] Çağlayan’s son was arrested during a corruption operation on Dec. 17, together with the sons of two other ministers; Environment and Urbanization Minister Erdoğan Bayraktar and Interior Minister Muammer Güler. The leaks, possibly from prosecutor’s office and police, to Turkish media claim that those ministers, plus Turkey’s European Union Affairs Minister Egemen Bağış have been involved in facilitating the “business” of Reza Zarrab in Turkey by taking bribes and abusing their offices. The “business” is to transfer Zarrab’s money from gold trade over Turkey to Iran via the government-controlled Halkbank, providing a short-cut to Turkish citizenship to Zarrab (now he is Rıza Sarraf and under arrest) and his entourage, facilitating Schengen visas for them (including Zarrab’s relatives), allegedly from Italian channels, and the amount of the total bribery is reported in Turkish media to be as high as 142 million Turkish Liras, nearly $70 million.

Let's not fail to mention that Erdoğan is one of President Obama's best friends among foreign leaders, and that the Obama administration issued sanctions waivers for Turkey’s business dealings with Iran because it believed that the Turkish government was could be trusted to act in good faith.

Those Schengen visas are another story, and one likely to effect Turkey's hope of entering the EU. They allow the bearers to cross EU borders with only minimal checks, and I'm certain various security officials in the EU are trying to determine exactly who might have crossed their borders and what they were up to.

Erdoğan's reaction was quite typical for him. He refused to remove the four ministers involved, and accused an unspecified international group that he called “the interest-rate lobby” of fabricating the allegations. Oh, by 'interest rate lobby', he almost always means Jews.

“A totally illegal, very dirty, and extremely dark trap is being set under the guise of this corruption case,” Mr. Erdoğan said Sunday in Giresun, on Turkey’s eastern Black Sea coast. “The meaning of the conspiracy that was hatched last week is very clear: disrupting peace and stability….We will destroy these nasty games being played on Turkey.”

A few days ago, he even insulted U.S. Ambassador Frank Ricciardone and threatened to expel him from Turkey because he claimed the Ambassador was allied with his enemies and had told other western diplomats that the "empire (Erdoğan and the AKP) was about to fall.

Within a day after the news surfaced he fired more than 20 high-level police officers in Istanbul and Ankara, including those directly in charge of the units that carried out the raids. There are murmurings that the lead prosecutor supervising the investigations has also been sacked, but what's known for certain is that two new Erdoğan-appointed prosecutors were suddenly (and mysteriously) added to the team conducting the investigation. Most Turks see this as a blatant attempt to bury the evidence and sandbag the investigation, suspicions Erdoğan poured gasoline on when he began making noises about declaring all information about the corruption scandal a 'state secret'.

Meanwhile, pictures were published in the Turkish press showing six huge steel money safes, a money counting machine and a log book with $3 million worth of accounts, which were reportedly found in the house of Barış Güler, the Interior Minister’s son. And $4.5 million in cash was found in shoe boxes in the house of Halkbank’s General Manager Süleyman Aslan, who is also under arrest.

That in itself is a huge change. Turkey has more journalists in jail than any other country, and its a criminal offense to write and publish 'unTurkish' (read, anti-Erdoğan or anti-AKP) materials, so Turkey's journalists have been keeping their heads down. Until now, that is.

And as the investigation continues, it gets closer to Erdoğan personally. One element of the scandal is that the prime minister’s son Bilal, his wife, his in-laws, and some cronies set up a foundation last year for the “education of youth.” The foundation opened a residence for university students. Now it turns out the Foundation didn’t pay for the dormitory, but rather public money from the Fatih district municipality, which is headed by an AKP mayor who's now also been jailed. What Erdoğan’s family did with the money they claimed was spent on the dormitory is an unanswered question.

But wait, there's more

Members of Parliament (and of course, the press) are asking questions about some interesting land transactions that occurred. One of them involved the transfer of some state-owned land free of charge or at a much lower price than the land was worth to the Erdoğan's foundation, TÜRGEV, where Erdoğan's son Bilal sits on the board.

In a written parliamentary question, Umut Oran, a CHP deputy chairman, asked Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan if Erdoğan himself or his son Bilal had acted as a go-between in . Erdoğan's son is a member of the executive board of TÜRGEV.

“Were you or your son involved as an intermediary in the transfer to TÜRGEV of a piece of land in Altunizade [a neighborhood in İstanbul] which the Ministry of Education had asked to have but had been told to drop its claim [for the land]?” Oran demanded to know.

The other questions Erdoğan's enemies in Parliament are asking concerns some land worth $1 billion belonging to the Etiler Police Academy being sold to a company called Bosphorus without a public tender for a giveaway price of $460 million. Members of Parliament want to know exactly who's involved with Bosphorus, if officials from the Turkish Investment Support and Promotion Agency (TISPA) and some well-connected Saudi businessmen were part of the deal, and whether Erdoğan's son is part of the company or acted as an intermediary.

When you consider that one of Erdoğan and the AKP's selling points was clean,transparent government, this has had a major effect.

Is Erdoğan on the way out? Are the Turks finally fed up with Erdoğan and the AKP's brand of authoritatian rule and creeping Islamist fascism? If that's what goes down, this could be a major event in the Middle east involving one of the most important countries in the region.Stay tuned

Turkey's "Ergenekon" Political Show Trial Concludes

After 5 years, the "Ergenekon" conspiracy trial in Turkey has ended with an expected verdict that will widen the deep divides in Turkey between Islamists and non-Islamists.

After Tayipp Erdoğan and the AKP took power, revised Turkey's constitution and stacked the courts with Islamist friendly judges, they set out to destroy their political opposition, largely rooted in the military, Turkey's constitutionally mandated guardian of secular government since the days of Ataturk, who founded modern Turkey.

The trial was based on a charge of conspiring to overthrow the Erdoğan government -"Ergenekon" is the name of a mythical valley where a wolf supposedly saved Turks from being annihilated - but in the end the suspects were not only senior military members but included politicians, journalists and academics.

In true show trial fashion, it was largely conducted in secret, no credible evidence was ever produced against the vast majority of the accused and in the end, there were a record number of 254 guilty verdicts,19 of whom received life imprisonment, including retired Gen. İlker Başbuğ, who was the chief of staff of the Turkish military from 2008 to 2010 and was convicted without any evidence he was involved in any attempted coup. The verdicts came even after some defendants were able to prove during the trial that data and documents that incriminated them were loaded into their computers by the police after their arrests 'accidentally'.

On Monday when the verdicts were announced, all main access roads to the courthouse in the coastal town of Silivri were closed, as was airspace above it. Police fired rounds of tear gas on groups of protesters and pushed back crowds attempting  to approach the building, the defendants’ relatives were not allowed inside the courtroom and only carefully selected journalists were allowed to observe the sentencing.

Most Turks love conspiracy theories, so the governments tales of a 'deep state' shadow network originally resonated at first. But the subsequent waves of arrests and the way the trials themselves were conducted have convinced many Turks that this was nothing but a settling of scores against the regime's political opponents. Among the defendants currently jailed who were sentenced for Ergenekon charges were journalists Mustafa Balbay, Tuncay Özkan and Hikmet Çiçek, with Balbay and Çiçek receiving 34 and 21 years respectively and Özkan being sentenced to life in prison. They appear to be guilty of nothing other than writing against an Islamist takeover of Turkey and criticizing the increasingly autocratic Erdoğan government.

The defendants can appeal the verdicts,but given how Erdoğan and the AKP have stacked the courts, this is pretty much a done deal, for now.

This has added resonance in view of the harsh police crack downs recently on anti-Erdoğan protestors nationwide.

Stay tuned...

Turkey's Economic Bubble Begins To Burst

 

Turkey's Lira is dropping like a stone.

This is a sign that Turkey's huge credit bubble may be on the verge on bursting.

The Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey (CBRT) has already intervened in the foreign exchange market six times today to try prop up the value of the Turkish lira, and hasn't succeded.

The the central bank has flooded the market with $1.4 billion in hard currency in order to boost the lira against the dollar but in spite of all of the dollars being sold into the market by the CBRT, the lira keeps weakening against the dollar.

The rising price of oil and inflation on basic staples is one factor, as is the current political climate in Turkey.

Turkey's economy seems robust, but it actually isn't at all. Inflation is at 6.5% and rising, food prices are soaring, the official unemployment rate is at 9.5% (which means the real rate is closer to 13 or 14%) and there is a major imploding domestic credit bubble in consumer loans, which Turkey's banks are slamming out at 30% interest and up.Meanwhile exports continue to decline and Turkey's current account deficit is running at about $70 billion a year.

Like many Islamists. Erdogan has tried to camoflauge Turkey's economic woes with government subsidies...but that's a tough act to pull off when you don't have oil wealth to draw on. Just ask Basher Assad or Hosni Mubarak.

Stay tuned...the unrest in Turkey might end up getting a whole lot worse in a little while.

An Excellent Article On Turkey

 

As I've said before, some of the best mainstream media reporting on the Middle East comes from Germany's Der Spiegel.

It's not making the news much, but there is still a major pushback against Tayyip Erdogan and the Islamist AKP Party rule in Turkey, especially in the cities. It is a divided country.  Here, Der Spiegel's Daniel Steinvorth and Bernhard Zand examine where Turkey is now and where it might go in the future - recommended:

The first thing a visitor sees after passing through passport control in Istanbul is a monument to cosmopolitanism, consumption and the pleasures of drinking: a giant display shelf, 25 meters (80 feet) long, containing gin, vodka and whiskey, as well as wines from France, Italy and the US. Sales at the duty-free mall in Istanbul's Atatürk Airport are among the highest in Europe.

This would have pleased the man for whom the airport was named. Mustafa Kemal Pasha, known as Atatürk, the founder of modern Turkey, liked to drink Raki, the Turkish anise-flavored brandy, even on Muslim holidays.

Turkey's current prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, believes drinking alcohol is a sin. Even as mayor of Istanbul, he bullied bar owners and banned the serving of alcohol on government-owned property. Four weeks ago, he pushed through a new alcohol law that prohibits both the selling of alcoholic beverages after 10 p.m. and advertising for beer and wine. "The old alcohol law," he told the parliament, "was passed by two drunkards. Shouldn't we prefer the law of God instead?" One of the drunkards he was referring to was Atatürk, and the other was apparently Atatürk's successor, Ismet Inönü.

The Turks don't have a particular problem with alcoholism. But the seemingly minor change to the country's alcohol laws touches on a fundamental issue nonetheless. The country's very identity is at stake -- just as it is when it comes to social norms on clothing, beard styles and family planning.

The protests that began four weeks ago over a controversial construction project at Istanbul's Gezi Park revealed to the astonished leadership in Ankara and a surprised global public how open the identity of modern Turkey remains. It is a country that has always had its sights set firmly on the West, ever since its founding 90 years ago, its accession to NATO more than 60 years ago and its application for admission to the European Union 25 years ago. This country, which has experienced a remarkable economic boom for the last decade, is now confronted with the same question it faced 90 years ago: Who do we want to be? Where does Turkey want to go?

Provincial Simpletons?

The recent demonstrations and counter-demonstrations have served to highlight the two fundamental currents that drive Turkish society. There is the progressive, urban, Europe-oriented current on the one hand. And the conservative, rural movement that is deeply influenced by Islam, on the other.

They couldn't stand it anymore, say Turkish activists, that their prime minister and his fellow Islamists were trying to dictate to them how they should dress, how many children they should have and whether they could engage in public displays of affection. They are tired, say the supporters of Erdogan's conservative Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP), of being patronized by a westernized elite and being berated as provincial simpletons.

Both sides claim to be speaking for the majority of Turks. This is possible because Turkey today is a far more complex entity than the backward country of soldiers and farmers that Atatürk encountered beneath the ruins of the defunct Ottoman Empire.

The urbanization of the 20th century and the economic boom of the early 21st century have blurred and even confused traditional divides. During Erdogan's first term, in which he was supported by an overwhelming pro-European majority, it seemed as if a pluralistic democracy were developing. In 2005, the European Union embarked on accession talks with Turkey.

The altercations of recent weeks seem to belie the confidence of those years. The conflict shows that political differences in Turkey have actually intensified under the cover of the economic boom. The sense of outrage has increased and the divide running through Turkish society has deepened.

There are two social groups: the urban "white Turks" (beyaz türkler), who look down on the rural "black Turks" (kara türkler). Both groups have expanded their influence in the last 10 years. While Turkey's real per capita income has increased by a factor of one-and-a-half, Turkey has become both more cosmopolitan and more religious, more progressive and more conservative, more urban and more provincial.

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Turkey's Islamist Leaders: Anti-Erdogan Protests 'A Jewish Conspriracy'

Turkey's Islamist deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay has joind Turkish PM Tayyip Erdogan and other members of the Islamist AKP Party in finding a convenient and traditional scapegoat for the unrest and protests sweeping the country - it's the Jews, of course:

Turkey was rocked by violent protests last month when a small effort to save Gezi Park in central Istanbul from redevelopment mushroomed into a mass demonstration by tens of thousands of people opposed to what they see as Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's increasingly authoritarian rule.

Erdogan, in power for ten years, and other officials have cited conspiracies involving "foreign circles", an "interest-rate lobby", foreign media and terrorists engineering the protests to undermine Turkey's economy and political clout. Atalay's comments pointed the finger at the 'Jewish diaspora".

"There are those inside and outside the country who are envious about Turkey growing too much," said Atalay, one of four deputy prime ministers.

"They are all uniting. On the one side you have the Jewish diaspora. You have seen the foreign media's attitude over the Gezi Park events, how quickly they bought into it and how quickly and widely they started broadcasting before any assessment was made," he said.

While Erdogan used a thinly disguised code, ATalay came right out and named the Jews as Turkey's enemies, like the Islamist he is. So did the Turkish capitol of Ankara's AKP Mayor Melih Gokcek, who referred to the protests as "a game of the Jewish lobby".

Needless to say, the Obama Administration is not asking their Islamist friends in Turkey for an explanation.

There are 23,000 Jews in Turkey, mostly represented by the Turkish Jewish Community organization and they're petrified that this new 'dual loyalty' accusation could lead to violent reprisals by the regime. After all, it wouldn't be the first time this mostly Muslim country has engaged in murderous violence against non-Muslims in Turkey.

The Armenian Genocide,which Turkey still has yet to acknowledge occurred just 99 years ago:

"We are trying to obtain information about the meaning, the scope and details of Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay's statement about the 'Jewish Diaspora being behind Gezi protests'", the Turkish Jewish Community and chief rabbinate said in a joint statement on the community's website.

"Turkish Jewish citizens, as well as other Jewish people living all around the globe, may be affected and pointed (out) as a target of such a generalization, we wish to express our concerns and share our apprehension and worry of the consequences that such perceptions can cause."

I'd say that worry is well founded.