It has been about a month since the coup in Turkey and I would like to use this time to talk about the aftermath of the coup. Turkey has been having problems lately ranging from a terrorist attack to shooting down a Russian plane. However, their recent coup has been the most damaging. The coup started when the Turkish army tried to overthrow the government. They were defeated in the end but their actions started a domino effect. Turkish President Erdogan announced afterwards that the coup was caused by the US cleric Gulen and is now pressuring the US government to take him back. This is eroding US-Turkey relations due to a growing mistrust of the West when they didn't adequately acknowledge the coup sufficiently as a success for democracy.
Then there is the mass governmental and military purge that started after the coup ended. Erdogan seems to have adopted an arrest first, find out answers later policy as many are being arrested without solid evidence. This includes many people that that are suspected to have links to Gulen and both government and military officials who could have possibly been involved. This extends to the censorship problem as anyone who criticizes anything about the government will be labeled a Gulen supporter and possibly be persecuted if not beaten by democracy supporters.. With all of the internal strife, Turkey has stopped much of their external military actions. This alarms NATO as Turkey holds a crucial role in the combat of ISIS and other terrorist groups in the region. It isn't all doom and gloom, however, as the coup revitalized Turkish nationalism, strengthen bonds between citizens, and gave much more admiration for Presidend Erdogan and his government. What do you guys make of this? Do you agree that Turkey is facing more problems after the coup?
I agree with you Fred, Turkey is indeed facing many problems with terrorism, even more after the coup. But The thing is that Turkey's problem is that it's letteing a huge amount of Syrian refugees in without examination. This leads to mass amounts of Muslims, some could even be ISIS in disguise. What Turkey must do to stop it's attacks is have some sort of examination with strict observation on whether they're part of ISIS or not.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the Republic of Turkey is indeed facing problems other than the coup d etat. Due to other crises such as the Syrian refugee crisis and the nuclear problems, Turkey has now become a country of political instability. This is shameful because Turkey is a relatively developed country where democracy used to precedent for other Middle Eastern countries. Turkey needs assistance from the international community to get back of their feet and start running again. ISIS is just one of the problems that they are trying to circumvent; however, the media is currently bombarding us with information about this civil disorder, so that will not be part of my discussion. Democracy is an ideology that needs to be implemented in the Middle East; therefore, it is imperative that Turkey regains stability both for itself and its region.
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