From the desk of
Bill Ramey
7/31/16
COMMENTARY
& OPINION
Top
US General Rushes to Turkey Amid Accusations US Plotted Coup
©
REUTERS/ Yuri Gripas
A
top American general, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford, is
rushing to Turkey on an
unexpected visit, after President Erdogan’s allies directly accused the US of being behind the failed coup attempt in
the country and have begun purging members of the Turkish military with ties to
the United States.
Turkish
officials announced that General Dunford will visit the country on July 31
after conducting phone negotiations with his Turkish counterpart
General Hulusi Akar reports the pro-government Daily Sabah.
©
REUTERS/ Alkis Konstantinidis
Meanwhile,
the diplomatic row between the United States
and Turkey, in the wake
of a failed attempt to overthrow the Erdogan government, worsened
on Friday, with Ankara
becoming increasingly insistent that the Obama Administration and NATO were
at the center of the coup plot.
What
began as a complaint against the Obama administration
for dragging its feet on the extradition of US-based cleric and
former Erdogan ally Fethullah Gulen, who Ankara asserts masterminded the failed
overthrow attempt, has devolved into a conspiracy theory by Erdogan
and his supporters, alleging that the United States actively aided the bid.
On
Friday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made headlines by accusing the head of US Central Command
of, "siding with the coup plotters," and demanding that the
four-star general should, "know your place."
The
Turkish President implied that the United States played a direct role
in the failed coup by insinuating, "My people know who is
behind this scheme… they know who the superior intelligence behind it
is, and with these statements you are revealing yourselves, you are giving
yourselves away."
US
National Intelligence Director James Clapper acknowledged that the post-coup
purge in Turkey impairs
NATO’s mission in Syria,
as a disproportionate number of Turkish forces working with the United States
in the fight against Daesh have been caught up in the arrests
and firings.
"Many
of our interlocutors have been purged or arrested,” said Clapper. “There’s
no question this is going to set back and make more difficult cooperation
with the Turks."
Accusations
that the United States is
protecting Erdogan’s arch-nemesis Fethullah Gulen, and that American forces and
intelligence personnel played a direct role in the attempted overthrow,
date to a July 16 comment by the Turkish Labor Minister,
during a live interview with HaberTurk, in which he stated,
"the United States
is behind the coup."
© REUTERS/ Tumay
Berkin
That
narrative, dismissed by US Secretary of State John Kerry, who warned
that the accusations are “harmful for bilateral relations,” was again
hinted at in remarks by Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim,
warning that Ankara is ready to go
to war with “any” country that sides with Gulen, a comment perceived
as a direct reference to the US.
But
remarks by high-ranking Turkish officials have now been converted
into a call to action for Turkish nationalists, after the
pro-Erdogan Islamist newspaper Yeni Safak published a picture of NATO International
Security Assistance Force Commander and three-star US Army General John F.
Campbell on the front page, under the unambiguous headline, "The
man behind the failed coup in Turkey."
Hours
after the pro-AKP newspaper published their accusations, a large fire
erupted near the Izmir Air Station, a US Air Force base in western Turkey. T24
News reported that officials believed the fire was the result of
"anti-American sabotage."
The
anti-American sentiment currently displayed by pro-Erdogan Turkish
nationalists was fed by a narrative that the United States, their longtime ally,
plotted the overthrow of Erdogan’s administration. On Thursday some 5,000
protesters took to the streets in a march toward NATO’s Incirlik
Air Base, which holds somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 to 90 US tactical
nuclear weapons, chanting “death to US” and demanding the immediate
eviction of American forces from the country.
The
situation deteriorated further on Friday following a filing by a
Turkish prosecutor alleging that the FBI and the CIA trained and equipped
members of the so-called Gulenist Terror Organization (FETO), leading
to an explosion of activity on social media among Turkish
speakers calling for the execution of 'American traitors' and for the
immediate closure of NATO’s Incirlik Air Base.
Many
have predicted that US-Turkey and NATO-Turkey relations cannot withstand a
growing domestic unrest against the American military presence in the
country. Some ask whether Erdogan has opened a Pandora’s Box by placing Washington’s nuclear
weapons and allied forces in the line of fire from a
well-supported mob of nationalists.
Ramey comments:
General
Joseph Dunford on an emergency trip to Turkey? Seems highly unusual, huh?
Is
this situation much more serious than even what the news blackout would lead us
to believe?
Additionally,
does this confirm the rumor of the U.S. coup and is Dunford really the
decision maker now?
And
those are only part of the unanswered questions all this brings up. Where is the fleet now that was steaming
toward Turkey
a few days ago in battle formation with some sixteen Turkish ships as part of
their flotilla?
Are
they going to declare war on Turkey? Is there a way to rescue the nukes at
Incirlik AFB otherwise?
Could
this be part of a sinister plot to put nukes in the hands of ISIS?
And
then, of course, there's the big question on the minds of religionists and that
is: "Is this the fuse to Armageddon?"
So
much for the peripheral news, now I'll return you to the U.S. network news and
their more important message of what a nice lady Hillary is and how well
qualified she is for the office of president.
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