Generational Dynamics World View

[John J. Xenakis]

*** 21-Jul-17 World View -- Relations between Germany and Turkey spiral into crisis

This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

• Relations between Germany and Turkey spiral into crisis
  
• Turkey commemorates first anniversary of attempted coup
  

****
**** Relations between Germany and Turkey spiral into crisis
****


Young men stand on a Turkish army tank in Ankara on July 16, 2016, the day after the attempted coup. (Reuters)

The diplomatic crisis between Germany and Turkey deepened on Thursday
when Germany's foreign minister Sigmar Gabriel told a press conference
that it was no longer safe for German people and businesses to travel
to Turkey. The announcement was triggered by Turkey's detention of a
Germany human rights defender and two German journalists with no
credible charges or supporting evidence.

Gabriel broke off his summer vacation and returned to Berlin to deal
with the crisis that arose out of the arrests, particularly of German
human rights activist Peter Steudtner for allegedly aiding a "terror"
group.

Gabriel declared a “re-orientation” of Germany's Turkey policy, and
said that the country’s actions show it's “departing from the basis of
European values.":

> [indent]<QUOTE>"[Steudtner] never wrote about Turkey, he had no
> contacts in the political establishment ... and never appeared as
> a critic. ...
>
> One can’t advise anyone to invest in a country when there is no
> legal certainty and where companies, completely respectable
> companies, are presented as terrorists. I therefore do not see
> how, as the government, we can still guarantee German company
> investments in Turkey if, as has happened, arbitrary
> expropriations for political reasons have not only been threatened
> but have already taken place. ...
>
> German citizens are no longer safe from arbitrary arrests in
> Turkey. We have no other choice -- because we are responsible for
> the protection of our citizens of our country -- but to adapt our
> travel and safety advisory to Turkey and let Germans know what can
> happen to them when they travel to Turkey.
>
> We can’t go on as we have before. ... We have to be clearer than
> before so that those in charge in Ankara understand that such a
> policy won’t be without consequences."<END QUOTE>[/indent]

Ibrahim Kalin, spokesman for Turkey's president Recep Tayyip
Erdogan, said:

> [indent]<QUOTE>"We think these are domestic political statements for
> the upcoming elections in Germany. Unfortunately, this has become
> fashionable in Germany. People are being anti-Turkey and
> demonstrating their paranoid animosity against our president to
> score political points. ...
>
> We are strongly condemning suggestions that German nationals
> visiting Turkey would not be secure. We think that those
> unfortunate statements are an investment for internal politics
> aimed at the approaching elections in Germany.
>
> How come Germany tolerates this? When we talk about them, they
> respond ‘We have justice and independence.’ Well, why don’t they
> respect Turkish justice? This is disrespectful to Turkey. They
> will respect our justice. ...
>
> There was direct interference in the Turkish judiciary and the
> comments used overstepped the mark. The comments again show the
> double standards in their approach to the law of those who prevent
> terrorists from being brought to justice while embracing members
> of terrorist groups who target our country."<END QUOTE>[/indent]

Germany's actions were triggered by Steudtner's arrest, and also
because Turkish authorities had, several weeks ago, handed their
German counterparts a list of 68 German companies they accused of
having links to Erdogan's enemy Fethullah Gülen. Deutsche Welle and Al Monitor and Hurriyet (Ankara)

****
**** Turkey commemorates first anniversary of attempted coup
****

Life in Turkey has changed dramatically in the year that's passed
since the failed coup attempt on July 15 of last year. Well over
100,000 people have lost their jobs or been arrested with no credible
charges and no supporting evidence.

Turkey's president Recep Tayyip Erdogan says all of these people were
involved in the coup attempt, because they had a connection to his
former friend, and now enemy, Fethullah Gülen, the 76-year-old
political enemy of Erdogan, living since 1999 in self-imposed exile in
the Pocono Mountains in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania, after splitting
with Erdogan.

Gülen is a Muslim cleric with a worldwide network of schools and
businesses, run by his followers. For Erdogan, this worldwide network
was for many years a good thing, a sign of a progressive Turkey,
fighting extremism, and providing education and jobs. But relations
between Erdogan and Gülen started to sour in 2012, and were severed
completely in 2013. Since then, this huge international network has
turned in Erdogan's eyes from a good thing to a bad thing, promoting
terrorism instead of fighting extremism. Erdogan now claims that last
year's coup was planned and executed under the direction of Gülen and
the Fethullah Terror Group (FETO).

Gülen's name is linked to large numbers of schools and businesses, and
Erdogan is accusing anyone linked to these schools and businesses, as
being linked directly to Gülen and to last year's coup. For example,
anyone who has an account in the Gülen-linked Aysa Bank, who has
placed children in Gülen-linked schools, who has participated in
fund-raising events for Gülen linked humanitarian causes can be fired
or arrested and jailed. Anyone having a phone with the encryption
application BYLOCK, allegedly used by the Gülen organization, is also
assumed to be guilty of participating in the coup.

There are many reasons why Erdogan's reasons for firing and jailing
over 100,000 people do not make sense:

• Obviously, no more than a dozen or so people could have been
  involved in coup planning, or the details would have leaked out.
  
  
• Few people find credible the claim that 76-year-old Gülen
  orchestrated the coup from his easy chair in the Pocono mountains of
  Pennsylvania.
  
  
• In fact, Erdogan has repeatedly demanded that the US extradite
  Gülen back to Turkey, but Erdogan has been unable to provide any
  evidence that would meet American court standards to satisfy an
  extradition request.
  
  
• Erdogan started his purge well before the coup attempt. In
  particular, four months before the coup, Turkey and the world were
  shocked when Erdogan shut down Zaman,
  the country's major opposition newspaper, the largest
  newspaper in the country.
  
  
• In the days following the coup attempt, an extremely large and
  complex purge was put into place, with Erdogan giving himself increasingly dictatorial powers.
  Many
  analysts believe that the purge was in the planning stages for several
  months, waiting for the right opportunity to implement it.
  
  
• For years, starting long before the coup attempt, Erdogan has been
  aggregating power to himself, and has been changing Turkey's character
  from a secular state to a conservative Islamist state. This made him
  popular with millions of pious Turks who had felt ignored by the old
  secular elites. This all came to a head in 2007 over the issue of
  women wearing headscarves.
  
  However, Ataturk, the revered founder of Turkey after the collapse of
  the Ottoman Empire, declared that Turkey would be a secular state,
  with freedom of worship for people of all religions, including Jews
  and Christians. Ataturk asked the army to be the preserver of the
  secular state, and many in the army today see it as their job to stop
  Erdogan's changes. In fact, this split within the army between those
  who honor Ataturk and those who honor Erdogan may have been the reason
  that the coup was attempted in the first place.

During the last year, Erdogan's Turkey has been arresting tens of
thousands of Turkish citizens, and only occasionally a foreign
national. The arrest of German national Peter Steudtner appears to
have been a "last straw" for the Germans.
Irish Examiner and Hurriyet (Ankara) and AFP

Related Articles

• Turkey's Erdogan gives himself dictatorial powers, moving Turkey away from the West (22-Jul-2016)
  
  
• Turkey's 'shameful day for free press' as government seizes Zaman media (06-Mar-2016)
  
  
• More than a million of secularists rally in Turkey (14-May-2007)
  
  
• 26-Feb-10 News - Turkey debates Islam versus secularism (26-Feb-2010)
  

KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Ibrahim Kalin,
Fethullah Gülen, Fetullahist Terror Organization, FETO,
Germany, Sigmar Gabriel, Peter Steudtner
Generational Dynamics, Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan,
Fethullah Gülen, Fetullahist Terror Organization, FETO,
Germany, Sigmar Gabriel, Peter Steudtner

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