Turkey Launches Investigation Of "Losers" Who Claim Coup Was A Hoax

by Tyler Durden

Jul 25, 2016 9:50 AM

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-07-25/turkey-launches-investigation-losers-who-claim-coup-was-hoax 

Not content with implementing a state of emergency which has given Erdogan unlimited powers to continue an unprecedented purge of political enemies which has seen over 60,000 workers sacked, over 13,000 arrested, among them soldiers, judges, prosecutors, teachers, deans, hospital workers, and as of today, 42 journalists, in the aftermath of the staged failed coup, which also includes the closure and seizure of 1,043 private schools, 1,229 charities and foundations, 19 trade unions, 15 universities and 35 hospitals Turkey's latest target are those who refuse to question the official script.
As AP reports, Turkish prosecutors are now investigating people who have alleged on social media and elsewhere that a July 15 coup attempt was a hoax carried out by the government, the country’s justice minister said Sunday, reflecting a farcical crackdown on free speech.
Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said in an interview with Turkey’s Kanal 7 television station Sunday that anyone who suggests the coup attempt was staged likely had a role in the insurrection, which was defeated by loyalist forces and pro-government protesters. There has been some internet speculation that Erdogan engineered the unrest in order to rally support and thereby increase his power, a conspiracy theory rejected by the government and most commentators on Turkey’s recent turbulence.
“Just look at the people who are saying on social media that this was theater, public prosecutors are already investigating them. Most of them are losers who think it is an honor to die for Fethullah Gulen’s command,” Bozdag said.

Turkey also said it plans to hire more than 20,000 teachers to replace those who have been fired in a purge of suspected coup plotters in schools and other institutions. Education Minister Ismet Yilmaz said the new teachers will replace state educators who have been dismissed as well as teachers in private schools with alleged links to Fethullah Gulen, a U.S.-based cleric who has denied Turkish accusations that he directed the coup attempt that killed about 290 people. One can only imagine the educational "slant" that will be part of the new educational curriculum.

In other crackdown measures, Turkey has disbanded the presidential guard after already detaining nearly 300 unit members suspected of plotting against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and authorities detained Muhammet Sait Gulen, a nephew of the cleric who lives in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania.
Turkey has declared a three-month state of emergency to restore security following the coup attempt, granting Erdogan the power to impose decrees without parliamentary approval. More than 13,000 people, including nearly 9,000 soldiers, 2,100 judges and prosecutors and 1,485 police, have been detained, according to the president.

Varoufakis: Greek Deal Is "Coup", Turns Greece Into "Vassal" State, And Deals "Decisive Blow" To European Project

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 07/14/2015 09:03 -0400
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-07-14/varoufakis-greek-deal-coup-turns-greece-vassal-state-and-deals-decisive-blow-europea
Yanis Varoufakis, fresh off a few relaxing days at his island getaway, will be back in the Greek parliament this week to weigh in on the "compromise" deal his successor Euclid Tsakalotos and PM Alexis Tsipras struck in Brussels over the weekend.
Considering the eyewitness accounts of the highly contentious Eurogroup meeting - out of which came the exceedingly punitive term sheet which would serve as the basis for Greece's agreement with creditors - one can only imagine what might have unfolded if Varoufakis had been present for the "crazy kindergarten" finance minister free-for-all which reportedly took place on Saturday night.
For those curious to know what Yanis thinks about the deal, below are some "impressionistic thoughts" from the man himself. Highlights include the characterization of the Greek deal as a "decisive blow against the Euorpean project", a "statement confirming that Greece acquiesces to becoming a vassal of the Eurogroup", and the "culmination of a coup".
*  *  *
On the Euro Summit’s Statement on Greece: First thoughts via Yanis Varoufakis
In the next hours and days, I shall be sitting in Parliament to assess the legislation that is part of the recent Euro Summit agreement on Greece. I am also looking forward to hearing in person from my comrades, Alexis Tsipras and Euclid Tsakalotos, who have been through so much over the past few days. Till then, I shall reserve judgment regarding the legislation before us. Meanwhile, here are some first, impressionistic thoughts stirred up by the Euro Summit’s Statement.

• A New Versailles Treaty is haunting Europe – I used that expression back in the Spring of 2010 to describe the first Greek 'bailout' that was being prepared at that time. If that allegory was pertinent then it is, sadly, all too germane now.
• Never before has the European Union made a decision that undermines so fundamentally the project of European Integration. Europe’s leaders, in treating Alexis Tsipras and our government the way they did, dealt a decisive blow against the European project.
• The project of European integration has, indeed, been fatally wounded over the past few days. And as Paul Krugman rightly says, whatever you think of Syriza, or Greece, it wasn’t the Greeks or Syriza who killed off the dream of a democratic, united Europe.
• Back in 1971 Nick Kaldor, the noted Cambridge economist, had warned that forging monetary union before a political union was possible would lead not only to a failed monetary union but also to the deconstruction of the European political project. Later on, in 1999, German-British sociologist Ralf Dahrendorf also warned that economic and monetary union would split rather than unite Europe. All these years I hoped that they were wrong. Now, the powers that be in Brussels, in Berlin and in Frankfurt have conspired to prove them right.
• The Euro Summit statement of yesterday morning reads like a document committing to paper Greece’s Terms of Surrender. It is meant as a statement confirming that Greece acquiesces to becoming a vassal of the Eurogroup.
• The Euro Summit statement of yesterday morning has nothing to do with economics, nor with any concern for the type of reform agenda capable of lifting Greece out of its mire. It is purely and simply a manifestation of the politics of humiliation in action. Even if one loathes our government one must see that the Eurogroup’s list of demands represents a major departure from decency and reason.
• The Euro Summit statement of yesterday morning signalled a complete annulment of national sovereignty, without putting in its place a supra-national, pan-European, sovereign body politic. Europeans, even those who give not a damn for Greece, ought to beware.
• Much energy is expended by the media on whether the Terms of Surrender will pass through Greek Parliament, and in particular on whether MPs like myself will toe the line and vote in favour of the relevant legislation. I do not think this is the most interesting of questions. The crucial question is: Does the Greek economy stand any chance of recovery under these terms? This is the question that will preoccupy me during the Parliamentary sessions that follow in the next hours and days. The greatest worry is that even a complete surrender on our part would lead to a deepening of the never-ending crisis.
• The recent Euro Summit is indeed nothing short of the culmination of a coup. In 1967 it was the tanks that foreign powers used to end Greek democracy. In my interview with Philip Adams, on ABC Radio National’s LNL, I claimed that in 2015 another coup was staged by foreign powers using, instead of tanks, Greece’s banks. Perhaps the main economic difference is that, whereas in 1967 Greece’s public property was not targeted, in 2015 the powers behind the coup demanded the handing over of all remaining public assets, so that they would be put into the servicing of our un-payble, unsustainable debt.