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JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION

Over 50 Turkish commanders held over coup plot

World Feb. 23, 2010 - 06:52AM JST ( 14 )

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14 Comments

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goodDonkeyFeb. 23, 2010 - 08:44AM JST

The military’s self-declared mission to protect the secular regime ...

Hey, that's what I want to see too.
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Damien15Feb. 23, 2010 - 10:02AM JST

The military’s self-declared mission to protect the secular regime ...

It's hardly self declared, people need army to be a guard of secualrism. Last think Turkey wants to be is another Malasia.
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OdogmaFeb. 23, 2010 - 10:46AM JST

So far, prosecutors have jailed more than 400 people, including soldiers, academics, journalists and politicians. No one has yet been convicted.

And this is a country which believes it should be granted EU membership...
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MolenirFeb. 23, 2010 - 10:53AM JST

It's hardly self declared, people need army to be a guard of secualrism. Last think Turkey wants to be is another Malasia.

Or worse another Iran.
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Damien15Feb. 23, 2010 - 11:38AM JST

Or worse another Iran.

This is less likely, because Iran has always been non-secular, hard-line Islamic country, even before the islamic revolution. This will never happen to Turkey, because we have been a secular country for a long time.

And this is a country which believes it should be granted EU membership...

This could be a good argument, if they uncovered an Islamic militant group which was planning a coup and had major followers. It's the opposite to this though. There are group of elite ex-military and others, who are concerned about government’s Islamic agenda and planning to do something about it. Not that they have done anything, or had concrete plans of doing it. I personally think religion is similar to disease. We caught it while passing by the highly infected Arabic nations centuries ago. Still trying to shake it, but people need to embrace science before they can kill the religion disease.
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WilliBFeb. 23, 2010 - 11:54AM JST

The Turkish islamist government is systematically disabling the safety mechanism that Kemal Atatürk set in place to protect the secular values of modern Turkey from islamist power grabs.

Without the military as secular watchdog, Turkey will quickly turn into another islamic theocracy like Iran.

And the clueless West is actually applauding this.
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Damien15Feb. 23, 2010 - 12:10PM JST

The Turkish islamist government is systematically disabling the safety mechanism that Kemal Atatürk set in place to protect the secular values of modern Turkey from islamist power grabs.

I don't think it's a systematic disabling. They really tried hard to defy the ban for islamic dresses in schools or government offices, but they failed. People of Turkey will never let Islamic fanatics to come to power, will never be like Iran. We are children of Ataturk and we will not go back in time.

Also like to say that none of the 400 people are charged with any crime. If they had concrete plans to shot down and airplane, they'd be charged by now. I think it's semi-serious, and their intentions are not that bad, so I don't see any jail sentences coming out of this. We'll see I guess.
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MolenirFeb. 23, 2010 - 12:21PM JST

People of Turkey will never let Islamic fanatics to come to power, will never be like Iran. We are children of Ataturk and we will not go back in time.

You say that, but yet they've voted several times now to put these people in power. So respectfully, I disagree. Turkey is on a slippery slope, perhaps you're not seeing the big picture, as to where it could lead. Hopefully it won't, but can you really be certain of that?
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HonestDictatorFeb. 23, 2010 - 01:10PM JST

Seems like Damien is more in the know about Turkey's politics than you guys. No one can be certain of anything but he's got an optimistic view and only time will tell how everything will play out in the end.

Give Turkey credit for their current system. The people will fight hard if Islamic fundamentalism tries to take over the country.
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goodDonkeyFeb. 23, 2010 - 01:13PM JST

I don't see Turkey turning into another Iran. However I was very disappointed when the people voted in the current political powers.
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m5c32Feb. 23, 2010 - 01:25PM JST

I take it these guys ain't no Young Turks.
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Damien15Feb. 23, 2010 - 02:18PM JST

Hopefully it won't, but can you really be certain of that?

One reason of me thining this way is because majority of Turkish, if not all, love Ataturk. And they can't be fanatic muslims while loving Ataturk. Also among my friends and family, there are no fanatic muslims at all. People think that religious people are less prone to corruption and that's why they selected the religious leader, but it means no way that they want to be ruled by sheria laws. Plus, it's been sometime since Islamic government came to ruling. Not much has changed and I don't think they have a hardline Islamic agenda. Religious dress still prohibited in universties and government offices. Secularism is the root of our government and don't think it's going to change, ever.
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Damien15Feb. 23, 2010 - 02:31PM JST

However I was very disappointed when the people voted in the current political powers.

You're not alone on that. We were also very dissapointed and worried of the future, when this happened. It looked like a step back. I would have loved for non-religious government could be well trusted, but unfortunately, people believe only the fear of god can enable for one to be honest. When they came to power, they just kept doing a good job and kept their position. So far, I haven't seen even a small hint of them trying to bring the Islamic agenda or sheria law and don't believe it's their intention. But even if today, where there's no issues, we're finding out concerned guards of secularism is taking action to throw out the semi-islamic government, I can say that secularism is in good hands and won't dissapear anytime soon.
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lostrune2Feb. 24, 2010 - 06:03AM JST

Would it be unwise to put too much influence from the military over civilian control of a democracy government?