There's just been a Coup!

[JohnF]

Well, according to Kılıçdaroğlu leader of the CHP there has effectively been a coup.

Little Reginald said:

"You can either accept it or not. Turkey's government system has been de facto changed in this regard. What should be done now is to finalize the legal framework of this de facto situation with a new Constitution," Erdoğan said during a meeting with local civil society organizations in his hometown of Rize on Friday night.

Big Kemal said:

Main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, speaking to the Hürriyet daily, called Erdoğan's remarks of the so-called system change a “coup,” further likening Erdoğan to Kenan Evren, the leader of the 1980 military coup.

I suspect the new lows seen this morning, over 4.46tl to the pound and 2.84tl to the dollar may be linked to what's happening in Ankara just now. 

I think Mr Bahçeli hit the nail on the head:

Opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli later lashed out at Erdoğan for his words. “If the administrative system of our state remains in one person's hands, then woe unto us! We cannot endure a domestically produced [Adolf] Hitler, [Joseph] Stalin or [Muammar] Qaddafi. Let it be known,” Bahçeli wrote on his Twitter account on Saturday evening.

Source: TZ

JF

[kayakebab]

Saw this on Twitter yesterday. Shocking and not sure what will happen next.
Lots of tweets about being led into civil war.
Let's hope something is done before this happens
Keeping a close eye on things whilst trying to bury my head in the sand at the same time

[yabanci]

Well, according to Kılıçdaroğlu leader of the CHP there has effectively been a coup.

Good job The Daily Mail hasnt seen this yet.

[kevin3]

  How / Why is one man allowed to wreck a country and inflict so much suffering on it's people.

  Bahceli is spot on but he and other "opposition " figures have allowed it to continue. They

  could have united for this one occasion and put a stop to it. I think they will regret that soon.

[usedbustickets]

It's the nature of the man, and the idiots who support him, he either has it all or no one else gets anything, he'll destroy the lot.

[KKOB]

Well, according to Kılıçdaroğlu leader of the CHP there has effectively been a coup.

Good job The Daily Mail hasnt seen this yet.

They have, but they've decided that it's far more important that a 16 year old aspiring model has been "scarred for life" after have a henna tattoo in Turkey and the holiday company she went with are obviously to blame.

[Colwyn]

John, I don't know what to make of this story. I think I'll wait for some more commentaries before forming an opinion. In the old days the army would have been straight out of the barracks at such a suggestion - and with a lot of popular support. Perhaps now they are so weakened and infiltrated that this is just not a possibility. If Erdogan was able to pull this off it would make my last two topics (on November Election and Tourism) redundant. There won't be an election and European tourism will evaporate within a couple of years.

[kevin3]

 Such is the state of Tourism that the Mayors of 3 Mugla resorts have asked the Ministry to delay
 the school holiday return to school by two weeks to try and tempt Turkish residents to take holidays
 to compensate for Tourism's bad losses. One of the Mayors was Saatci of Fethiye. Must be bad.
 Hurriyet Daily News.
 

[Colwyn]

After all the help Erdogan has given IS this seems a trifle ungrateful - calling him Satan and urging the Turkish people to rise up and overthrow him.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/isis-video-urges-people-of-turkey-to-rise-up-and-overthrow-satan-president-recep-erdogan-10460185.html

[JohnF]

In the old days the army would have been straight out of the barracks at such a suggestion - and with a lot of popular support. Perhaps now they are so weakened and infiltrated that this is just not a possibility.

Aye, in fact had the army not been so weakened (in leadership) in recent years, some may argue that they'd actually have been out before now.

Ironically, the new Chief of General Staff General, Hulusi Akar, was rumoured to have connections to Hizmet (I cant find the article right now) before being chosen by the Supreme Military Council to head up the army.  One quote I read recently was:

“Gen. Akar would never intervene in domestic politics. And he would support better political relations with China and Russia,” my source told me, “But he would not allow the military structure to be out of the traditional alliance rules. He is a true NATO soldier in that sense.”

Maybe the statement in bold was one of the qualifications for getting the job?

JF