Culture minister tours Saudi pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka    Al Ahli edges Al Ain 2-1, bolsters perfect start in AFC Champions League Elite    Saud Abdulhamid makes history as first Saudi player in Serie A    Saudi Cabinet to hold special budget session on Tuesday    King Salman orders extension of Citizen's Account Program and additional support for a full year    Al-Falih: 1,238 foreign investors obtain premium residency in Saudi Arabia    Irish PM apologizes for walking away from care worker    Several dead as Storm Bert wreaks havoc across Britain    Most decorated Australian Olympian McKeon retires    Adele doesn't know when she'll perform again after tearful Vegas goodbye    'Pregnant' for 15 months: Inside the 'miracle' pregnancy scam    Ukraine losing ground in Russia's Kursk region, says military source    Hezbollah fires rocket barrages into Israel after deadly Beirut strikes    Al Ittihad claims top spot in Saudi Pro League after victory over Al Fateh    Do cigarettes belong in a museum?    Saudi Arabia joins international partnership initiative to boost hydrogen economy    Riyadh Emir inaugurates International Conference on Conjoined Twins in Riyadh    Saudi Arabia to host 28th Annual World Investment Conference in Riyadh    Saudi Arabia allows licensed flour milling companies to export flour    Katy Perry v Katie Perry: Singer wins right to use name in Australia    Order vs. Morality: Lessons from New York's 1977 Blackout    India puts blockbuster Pakistani film on hold    The Vikings and the Islamic world    Filipino pilgrim's incredible evolution from an enemy of Islam to its staunch advocate    Exotic Taif Roses Simulation Performed at Taif Rose Festival    Asian shares mixed Tuesday    Weather Forecast for Tuesday    Saudi Tourism Authority Participates in Arabian Travel Market Exhibition in Dubai    Minister of Industry Announces 50 Investment Opportunities Worth over SAR 96 Billion in Machinery, Equipment Sector    HRH Crown Prince Offers Condolences to Crown Prince of Kuwait on Death of Sheikh Fawaz Salman Abdullah Al-Ali Al-Malek Al-Sabah    HRH Crown Prince Congratulates Santiago Peña on Winning Presidential Election in Paraguay    SDAIA Launches 1st Phase of 'Elevate Program' to Train 1,000 Women on Data, AI    41 Saudi Citizens and 171 Others from Brotherly and Friendly Countries Arrive in Saudi Arabia from Sudan    Saudi Arabia Hosts 1st Meeting of Arab Authorities Controlling Medicines    General Directorate of Narcotics Control Foils Attempt to Smuggle over 5 Million Amphetamine Pills    NAVI Javelins Crowned as Champions of Women's Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) Competitions    Saudi Karate Team Wins Four Medals in World Youth League Championship    Third Edition of FIFA Forward Program Kicks off in Riyadh    Evacuated from Sudan, 187 Nationals from Several Countries Arrive in Jeddah    SPA Documents Thajjud Prayer at Prophet's Mosque in Madinah    SFDA Recommends to Test Blood Sugar at Home Two or Three Hours after Meals    SFDA Offers Various Recommendations for Safe Food Frying    SFDA Provides Five Tips for Using Home Blood Pressure Monitor    SFDA: Instant Soup Contains Large Amounts of Salt    Mawani: New shipping service to connect Jubail Commercial Port to 11 global ports    Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Delivers Speech to Pilgrims, Citizens, Residents and Muslims around the World    Sheikh Al-Issa in Arafah's Sermon: Allaah Blessed You by Making It Easy for You to Carry out This Obligation. Thus, Ensure Following the Guidance of Your Prophet    Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques addresses citizens and all Muslims on the occasion of the Holy month of Ramadan    







Thank you for reporting!
This image will be automatically disabled when it gets reported by several people.



Turkey's bungled putsch: A strangely 20th century coup
Published in The Saudi Gazette on 18 - 07 - 2016

IT was a strangely 20th century coup, defeated by 21st century technology and people power.
When a self-styled military "Peace Council" tried to topple Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and his government on Friday night, the rebel generals and colonels seemed to be fighting the last war.
"This coup was obviously planned quite well but using a playbook from the 1970s," said Gareth Jenkins, a researcher and writer on military affairs based in Istanbul.
It was more like Chile in 1973, or Ankara in 1980 than a modern Western state in 2016.
The rebels struck on a weekend when the president was out of town at a holiday resort. They seized the main airport, sealed off a bridge over the Bosphorus in Istanbul, sent tanks to parliament and Ankara and to control the main road junctions, and broadcast a statement on TRT state television declaring a curfew and warning people to stay at home.
But they failed to capture any of the ruling AK Party leaders or to shut down private television, mobile phone signals or social media networks, enabling Erdogan and his aides swiftly to call supporters into the streets to resist the coup.
Their biggest handicap, said Turkish analyst Sinan Ulgen of the Carnegie Europe think tank, was that they acted outside the military chain of command and hence lacked sufficient resources to take control of key levers of power.
"Their blueprint was also ineffective since they failed from the outset to capture any military installations in Turkey or any of the (political) leadership," said Ulgen, a former Turkish diplomat.
Erdogan, frequently accused of interfering with social media and muzzling the press and broadcasters, used modern communications technology nimbly to get his message out to the population of nearly 80 million, outflanking the plotters.
He used the FaceTime video application on a reporter's smartphone to broadcast a message live on CNN Turk, a private TV station which the plotters tried but failed to silence.
"Let's gather as a nation in the squares," he said. "I believe we will remove this occupation that has taken place within a short time. I am calling on our people now to come to the arenas and we will give them the necessary answer."
The president said rebels tried to bomb his hotel in the southwestern resort of Marmaris. There was also a gunfight there between soldiers and pro-government police after he had left.
Within 20 minutes of the coup broadcast, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim went on Twitter to denounce the putsch and assure Turks that the armed forces' high command was not backing the revolt. They were following in a long line of revolutionaries who used new communications techniques to outwit their enemies — from Protestant priest Martin Luther using the printing press in 1517 to spread his theses denouncing the Roman Catholic church, to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini recording audio cassettes that were copied and spread around Iran to defeat the Shah in 1979.
Social media have made it harder for governments to suppress news and voices of protest. Iran's "Green Revolution" protests against an allegedly rigged presidential election in 2013 were amplified by video shot on mobile phones and disseminated on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.
In Turkey on Friday, aides to Erdogan were able to get messages out to Turkish and international media that the president, in power since 2003, was safe and not under arrest even as soldiers were taking over the TRT television station.
His predecessor, Abdullah Gul, also used FaceTime to shout angry defiance at the coup plotters on CNN Turk, and former Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu spoke by mobile phone with Al Jazeera television to call the takeover a failure.
The contrast was striking with the ultimately unsuccessful 1991 coup by hard-liners against Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, who was reduced to listening to BBC World Service radio at his Crimean holiday home, powerless to intervene as events unfolded in Moscow.
The Soviet plotters managed to take control for three days — earning embarrassing recognition from then French President Francois Mitterrand — before Russian leader Boris Yeltsin rallied public opposition to the coup, standing atop a tank in Moscow to harangue the crowd.
The Turkish events also had echoes of a 1978 coup attempt against Spain's young democracy by rebel officers who burst into parliament but failed to win broader military support after King Juan Carlos broadcast to the nation in military uniform urging people to uphold the constitution.
As in the failed Soviet coup, the Turkish coup leaders were dependent on raw conscripts who had either not been told the truth about their mission, or had not expected to face popular resistance and quickly melted away or surrendered. All three opposition party leaders quickly condemned the coup and social media amplified calls to demonstrate against it.
The rebels bungled an attempt to silence CNN Turk, jointly owned by Turner Entertainment Systems of the United States and Dogan Yayin Holding. A helicopter carrying conscripts with a single officer landed at the station but was told it was impossible to take the signal off the air. They forced the temporary evacuation of the studio. When CNN Türk came back on air, anchorwoman Nevsin Mengu and general manager Erdogan Aktas described the mood of the young soldiers. "These young soldiers had only fear in their eyes and no sign of devotion or determination," Mengu said. "They asked us to go offline but we said it was not doable. They didn't know how to do it so our empty studio was live on TV for the whole time before we regained control."
During that break, a man in a pink T-shirt wandered into the studio chanting "Allahu Akbar" (God is great) in support of Erdogan.
Religious leaders loyal to the president also for the first time used the network of mosques with loudspeakers to urge Turks to go out into the streets in the name of "jihad" (holy war).


Clic here to read the story from its source.