Turkey's Islamist Stalin..........by Dan Friedman

In Turkey (as well as Egypt) the mantra has been the secular military will keep Islamist ambitions in check. Well, kiss that mantra, and a secular Turkey, goodbye. Using the pretext that the military has been a plotting against him, Turkey’s Islamist prime minister has hatched his own plot, imprisoning scores of military officers culminating in this:
Chief of General Staff General Isik Kosaner stepped down on Friday along with the commanders of the army, navy and air force in protest at the detention of 250 officers on charges of conspiring against Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's government.

More than 40 serving generals, almost a tenth of Turkey's senior commanders, are now under arrest, accused of various plots to bring down Erdogan's AK Party government.
(Reuters)

Over in Egypt both the rising Muslim Brother and the declining “secular” armed forces have been watching, and both see Erdogan’s coup as a template for the future. And you can bet that many of the former must be asking “how can we ever thank you, Barack Hussein Obama?”


Dan Friedman
NYC