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Azerbaijan, a strategic ally of Turkey, has suspended a national TV station that reportedly planned to broadcast an interview with Fethullah Gülen, the Pennsylvania-based imam who Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan blames for instigating a failed coup. In a July 19 statement, Azerbaijan’s National Council for Television and Radio announced that it would suspend for one month the privately run ANS TV’s broadcasts “to prevent the provocation aimed at undermining the strategic cooperation relations between Turkey and Azerbaijan, and not to allow the open propaganda of terrorism,” Trend news agency reported. The Council added that it also would sue to...

It has been confirmed by Supreme Council of radio and television of Turkey (RTUK) the news that Mr. Erdogan – the president of Turkey has revoked 3213 national ham radio licenses. The HF radio in Turkey is now silent. No transmissions are allowed. Following the coup d’etat – of July 5th – many things are changing in Turkey. TV , Radio licenses have been cancelled and this involved also our colleagues : ham radio amateurs. The number of amateur radio operators in Turkey is not too much, but according to the site TRAC.org it looks like that around 3000 licenses...

The first news bulletins raised the wildest hopes: In a once familiar pattern, Turkey's military would again step forward to make that country part of the West, complete with free elections and the rule of law. Back when the Ottomans ruled, Turkey was known as the Sick Man of Europe, but now it would become a healthy democracy again. Its reigning sultan these days, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, had long been saying that a military coup was in the offing, which was his excuse for continuing to tighten his grip on power. The first announcement from those officers heading the coup...

Turkey has said it will suspend the European Convention on Human Rights during a state of emergency declared in the aftermath of last weekend’s coup attempt. “Turkey will suspend the European Convention on Human Rights insofar as it does not conflict with its international obligations,” the deputy prime minister, Numan Kurtulmus, was quoted as saying by the state-run Anadolu news agency. The state of emergency will allow the government to rule by decree, passing bills that have the force of the rule of law unless they are overturned by parliament, where the majority of MPs belong to the ruling Justice...

Concerns are growing for the future of Christians in Turkey, the birthplace of St Paul, in the wake of the failed coup. Two churches in eastern Turkey in places already known for historic murders of Christians were vandalised during the attempted coup, reports Middle East Concern. In Trabzon on the Black Sea, ten people attacked the Catholic church of Santa Maria where Catholic priest Father Andrea Santoro was murdered in 2006. Muslim neighbours intervened and drove them away. In Malatya, where three Christian workers were murdered in 2007, there was an attempt to smash the windows of the Protestant Church....

To us, “caliphate” appeared to be just another name for a vast torture chamber. But for hundreds of millions of Muslims, many of whom have nothing to do with ISIS, the caliphate is associated with a lost and much-romanticized golden age when the caliph, who was also the Turkish sultan, claimed spiritual dominion over all Muslims. In the 14th century, the Ottomans revived the still-older concept of a caliphate, declaring that the sultan and caliph were one. It remained so until 1924, when Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the great modernizer, abolished the office as a relic, insisting that Turks had to...

If today’s Western leaders possess one general trait, it’s a genius for self-deception. Insisting that Islamist terror has nothing to do with Islam, or that religion has no strategic impact, or that all human beings want freedom and democracy, amounts to declaring that up is down, right is left and night is day. And midnight is coming for millions in Turkey, even as we insist that a dying flashlight is the sun. (...)

The U.S. Defense Department drew up orders for the evacuation of military dependents from the Incirlik Air Base in Turkey as the attempted military coup got underway Friday night but abandoned them as the insurrection quickly collapsed, Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook said Monday. While not confirming the presence of nuclear weapons at Incirlik, Cook also said steps had been taken to boost security for "special weapons" at the base shared with the Turkish Air Force to "keep everything safe, and we're going to continue to do that. As a matter of policy, we don't discuss strategic assets." Arms control...

Missions by American warplanes flown from the Incirlik air base in Turkey against Islamic State targets will resume following a temporary shutdown in the hours after the failed coup, Defense Department officials announced Sunday.

http://www.trunews.com/article/Is-Incirlik-Air-Base-being-held-hostage-by-Turkey Is Incirlik Air Base being held hostage by Turkey? July 20, 2016 Is Incirlik Air Base being held hostage by Turkey? Vero Beach, FL - (TRUNEWS) For a fifth consecutive day, Turkey has intentionally withheld power and vital supplies from the U.S.-NATO joint installation Incirlik Air Base. According to our sources, verified by TRUNEWS as parents and spouses of U.S. airmen currently stationed at Incirlik Air Base, no supplies have been flown or driven into the installation since Saturday, food and water are being strictly rationed, and only one week of fuel reserves remain to power their electric generators....

The United States runs its air operations against ISIS in Iraq from Incirlik Air Base in Turkey. The base, used by other NATO forces as well, is not American. It is Turkish, and the U.S. needs government permission to fly from there. Since the 15 July coup attempt in Ankara, U.S. forces at Incirlik are essentially hostages to the Turkish government. The Turkish base commander and his aides have been arrested; U.S. personnel are confined to base; outside power has been cut off; and while the U.S. has been permitted to resume operations over Iraq and Syria, it is working...

The US military is doing "prudent planning" in case it needs to move its anti-ISIS operations out of Incirlik Air Base in southern Turkey following the country's failed coup, several US defense officials told CNN Tuesday. The Turkish government cut off the power to the base after the coup attempt took place Friday, leaving it without a commercial power supply for four days and counting. The Pentagon has been able to fully operate the base through generator power but said it would be difficult to continue indefinitely. The Turks still have not given a clear explanation about why they cut...

<p>The power was restored Friday at a key Turkish base used by U.S. strike aircraft, defense officials said, nearly a week after an attempted overthrow of the Turkish government by a faction of its military spun the country into chaos.</p>

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is in a snit, and on a tear. Having survived last Friday’s military coup, the Turkish president has declared a three-month “state of emergency” and claimed a free hand in steam-shoveling old enemies. As of this writing, he has “detained” 6,000 military personnel and 3,000 judges. Some are being held in a sports stadium, “a development,” observes The Independent, “that has ominous similarities with mass arrests in South American coups in the last century.” Political prisoners are being refused contact with family and legal counsel, even by phone. For good measure, Erdoğan’s revoked the licenses of 21,000...

Incirlik Air Base is located in the Ä°ncirlik quarter of the city of Adana, Turkey. The United States Air Force and the Turkish Air Force are the primary users of the base, although it is also used by the Royal Air Force and by the Royal Saudi Air Force. The air base has continued to rely on backup generators since the failed coup plunged the country into crisis. Commercial power was cut to the base in and the airspace above it closed to air traffic within hours of last Friday's attempted military takeover in the NATO country. There is little...

Pro-government mob groups attack religious in the aftermath of the attempted coup in Turkey, a democratic watchdog reports. Reportedly, in some cases Muslim citizens reacted against the mobs to protect their fellow citizens. The attacks by Islamist mobs begun on Saturday evening, that is, the evening after the attempted coup had been averted. Attacks were reported at the Catholic Church of Santa Maria in Trabzon; a second attacks was reported on a Protestant Church in Malatya. In Trabzon a mob of 10 people attacked the Catholic Church, throwing stones drawn from the pavement. The mob also carried sledge hummers. Fortunately,...

Turkey's academics found themselves in the government's crossfire once again on Wednesday amid a continued crackdown following a failed military coup last week. The High Board of Education placed a travel ban on academics, temporarily barring them from leaving the country, according to an official speaking on state-run broadcaster TRT. "Universities have always been crucial for military juntas in Turkey and certain individuals are believed to be in contact with cells within the military," the official said, explaining the goal of the ban was to keep any professors involved in Friday's attempted overthrow from leaving the country. This is just...

Nearly 3,000 soldiers arrested and 2,700 judges fired as Turkey begins punishing those linked to attempted coup. Turkey has begun a purge of soldiers and judiciary officials allegedly connected to an effort to topple the government, one day after a failed military coup attempt. By Saturday evening, the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had detained 2,839 military personnel, with number of arrests expected to rise, according to Prime Minister Binali Yildirim. Turkey's top judicial body, the HSYK, dismissed 2,745 judges on Saturday, according to Turkey's Anadolu news agency.

The Reichstag Fire of 27 February, 1933 When we described the aftermath of Turkey's failed, and painfully disorganized military coup attempt, we asked rhetorically, "Who wins?" To which we answered: "Why Erdogan of course. As he said during a press conference upon his arrival back in Istanbul in the early Saturday morning hours, the coup is an opportunity to "to purge the military." Erdogan also vowed to exact "the highest price" from the perpetrators. Or, to summarize, the military said Erdogan's power consolidation justifies the attempted coup; Erdogan said the coup justifies further consolidation of power." Overnight, when analyzing the...