Turkish President Recep Erdoğan has demanded that the United States turn over exiled cleric Fethullah Gülen for masterminding a weekend coup d’état to overthrow a turbulent regime. Around the world leaders of nations gaze in toward Turkey, with eyes a glow over the latest Istanbul intrigue. Like a chapter from an Ian Fleming novel, the curious role of Erdoğan in world detente grows more mysterious by the day.
On Friday night my son Rhett came outside where we were cooking out with friends to announce, “The Turkish military has just staged a coup to overthrow Erdogan!” Our party continued, by my analysis colleague Holger Eekhof commented at his late departure, “Now they can sleep, and we must do our job again.” The “job” he referred to is analysis of exactly what went on behind the scenes in Ankara, and in other world capitals. Was this a real “coup”, or a staged buyout of the western hegemony game? As is usually the case, Erdoğan story line leaves us with more questions and intrigue. Fethullah Gülen brought to the forefront though, this narrows the possibilities of who really was behind this alleged takeover. Washington says the Obama administration had nothing to do with it, Gülen fawns with sheepish disbelief he’s been implicated, and Erdoğan is almost gloating in new-found strength.
Readers unfamiliar with Fethullah Gülen (at left) will want to understand this Turkish preacher, former imam, and political figures status. Gülen is the founder of the so-called Gülen movement. A former ally of Erdoğan, he is the most influential Turkish figure outside of the country’s president, a man on a self-imposed exile in the United States, residing in Pennsylvania. In brief, it was Gülen’s biographer Hakan Yavuz who described the mysterious Turkish cleric best. Yavuz characterized Gülen as “a Muslim thinker whose ideas resonate with Calvinism, because of his advocacy of neoliberal capitalism. These qualities also earned Fethullah Gülen some interesting friends in the CIA, and among subversive US policy makers. His “movement” has been compared to Opus Dei, and his efforts inside the United States and other countries speak to this. Gülen now manages a global empire of secondary schools, universities, business conglomerates, financial and media corporations, as well as a massive membership of Hizmet in Turkey and worldwide.
So, when other colleagues leaped up in cheering for the seemly opportunity of Erdoğan being deposed, I recalled some words from Russia’s Vladimir Putin not long ago. At the the Valdai International Discussion Club at Sochi, in 2014, Putin announced a new course for Russia, a course departed from what he termed the “backroom horse-trading” of trivial deals in favor of real and transparent progress for all nations. It is my belief, that what we see happening in capitals around the world, is a frenzied political deal maker circus. It is a circus in which a Turkish knife throwing act bids for a bigger piece of the gate. Speaking literally instead of metaphorically, Erdoğan has made so many deals in these last years, just keeping up must require a team of assistants. Washington runs the money printing press, Europe has its vital “gifts” for the Erdoğan’s new Ottoman Empire bid, and Moscow simply must be balanced or else. Democracy, democracy, democracy flows out of Erdoğan this morning, but is it all a show? Did the Obama administration condone a real coup? Or did Erdoğan create a hoax as a brand new bargaining chip?
It’s no secret that those Gülen schools all over the world were intended to indoctrinate a new breed of Turkish middle class. And in Central Asia the rumors they served as cover for CIA operatives in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, who spied for the US government while working as English teachers bear scrutiny. But did the US, displeased with Turkey’s most recent lack of cohesion, really give the “go ahead” to put Gülen in as a puppet? Erdoğan is on the hot sear. With the Turkey, Saudi, Qatar, US, EU backed Syria insurgency going badly now, and the refugee card almost played out, the Turkish president sits isolated, and with Russians ready to nuke Ankara. I guess a good question here is, “What would you do to get out of the frying pan?” My senses tell me Erdoğan knew of the talk of installing Gülen for some years, and that he planned on throwing Gülen Movement people inside Turkey into the fire all along. The logical answer is, the Obama people were at work insider Turkey already, and that Erdoğan gave his opposition this opportunity for purpose. The “coup” never stood a chance at all, or else Erdoğan could never have crushed it so easily.
The “staged coup” is a brilliant plan, but I do not believe it was Erdoğan’s alone. Turkey’s president now has Washington over a barrel, and NATO too. Deny sending Gülen back, and Turkey departs as America’st most important strategic ally versus Russia. If Obama gives over Gülen, and betrays all those machinations to prop him up, then America loses internal allegiances. Remembering Erdoğan’s apology the other day, for the downing of the Russian SU 24 over Syria, it’s not hard to figure Turkey’s game now. NATO moves battalions to the Baltics and eastern Europe, and Turkey becomes the geo-political battleground. Cold War redux, just like a James Bond 007 back plot. ISIL is losing. Russia and Assad’s forces, along with assistance from Iran, have sealed the fate of the Washington Arab Spring gambit. This Tyler Durden piece illustrates how Washington is reeling over its stumbling and fumbling in Syria. “Something is Going On” – And It’s Worse Than You Thought” is what presidential hopeful Donald Trump thinks of Obamas and Hillary Clinton’s messes. Trump frames the Obama administration for aiding and abedding radical Islam, and Durden proves he is right. Clinton and her handlers are the cause of all the messes in the Middle East. Erdoğan was an integral part of the Syria regime change, and now he’s playing his cards.
Look at what has happened in the last week, and Recep Erdoğan’s valiant defense of Turkish democracy will come into view better.
On Saturday of last weekend the NATO Summit in Warsaw saw an unprecedented deployment of elements aligned directly against Russia, including a key ABM system. The Washington Post editorial board called the new Cold War redux “a ray of light” in the dark aftermath of Brexit. The Russian’s condemned the implications, and Vladimir Putin promised to counter. Newsweek also claimed last week, that Vladimir Putin had once again attacked Ukraine. Next Russia sent 5 long range Tupolev Tu-22M3 strategic bombers to destroy more key targets inside Syria on July 12th. These mission was an interesting one, but I shall not elaborate here. On Thursday U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow about Syria cooperation, but no news emerged. Then the ghastly terrorist attack in Nice occurred. ISIL has claimed responsibility for the horrendous suicide attack , which rocked France once again. On Friday Congress released declassified documents from 9/11 implicated the royals in Saudi Arabia, and suggesting the Bush administration may have protected some of the real perpetrators of the terror attack. Mainstream media scarcely even carried the story. Then the Turkey events unfolded.
The cloaks and daggers are flying. The Saudis were warning America not to release those documents two months ago, and the Saudi Embassy in the United States said that it “welcomes the release” of the suppressed pages now that only circumstantial evidence against the royal family is contained in them. Does this seem strange to anyone else out there? The New York Times sets the Obama administration up this morning, to do what is necessary to wriggle out of Mr. Erdoğan’s allegations. All the forces of media, that the Obama White House controls, are scurrying to find a foothold, with rhetoric the “team” can use tomorrow. All indications are, the US is ready to throw Turkey under the bus. Everyone wants to know what is going on in Turkey, just how evil Erdoğan really is, and what part the US has played. The bottom line is, it does not matter.
The US wanted Turkey to have a new regime since a long time. Erdoğan and his contemporaries in the world have been wheeling and dealing for trillions for years. Putin’s counter-play has continually frustrated those who would seal the fate of bordering nations. NATO is about to take a hit, unless somebody ups the ante for Mr. Erdoğan. He has Washington and the EU held hostage again. And it does not matter if Vladimir Putin’s team schemed it up or not. Turkey into Russia’s sphere, and the west’s overall plans are pretty much cooked. I think the coup was a Bay of Pigs operation, it has CIA written all over it.
Let me know your thoughts.
