Turkish military denies coup attempt against Erdogan. What next?

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The Russian media comments have speculated in recent weeks on the likelihood of a ‘regime change’ in Turkey engineered by the United States. These speculations could well be wishful thinking or ‘psywar’ – or both – against the backdrop of the deep chill in relations between the two countries following the downing of a Russian jet by a Turkish F-16 aircraft last November.

Yet, the paradox of rumor is that while it cannot be disproved easily, it also cannot be brushed away as falsehood; it hangs out in the grey zone where fact morphs into fiction. Is the Russian rumor becoming reality?

Indeed, the Turkish General Staff felt compelled to issue an extraordinary statement on March 31 in Ankara refuting that there could be a coup d’etat by the military. The statement said, “Discipline, absolute obedience and single order command is essential in the Turkish Armed Forces. It is not possible there to be any concessions to any illegal or out-of-command chain hierarchy establishment (sic)”.

The statement added that criminal charges have been initiated against those disseminating such rumors. It stressed the Turkish armed forces’ “loyalty to democracy” and regretted that such rumors “naturally demoralize the military personnel”.

http://atimes.com/2016/03/turkish-military-denies-coup-attempt-against-erdogan-what-next/

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1. Turkey and Jordan’s quest to revive Middle East trade

ISTANBUL–Turkey and Jordan have two things in common: They are the only countries sharing a land border with both Syria and Iraq, and together with Lebanon they are the largest recipients of Syrian civil war refugees (Turkey hosting 2.7 million individuals and Jordan 636,000 as of the time of writing.)

While the governments of these countries would probably prefer to be without rather than having these commonalities, Ankara and Amman are now discovering a third linkage, which is the fact that in the war-ravaged Middle East they do not have many alternatives left in terms of stable trading partners, except each other.

Back in 2010, Turkey and Jordan spearheaded efforts to create an economic integration project, which would also include Syria and Lebanon in the first phase, and Iraq in the second.

Prospects for this initiative were dimmed when Arab uprisings engulfed the region, and the outbreak of civil war in Syria and the emergence of a terrorist threat in the shape of the self-proclaimed Islamic State buried away whatever hope was left for economic integration for the foreseeable future.

http://atimes.com/2016/03/turkey-and-jordans-quest-to-revive-middle-east-trade/

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2. Turkey detains suspected killer of downed Russian pilot - report

Turkish authorities have detained a man suspected of killing a Russian pilot after his plane was shot down by a Turkish jet near the Syrian-Turkish border last November, Turkey's Hurriyet newspaper reported.

The shooting down of the Russian jet triggered a tense standoff between Russia and NATO member Turkey, with Moscow imposing a raft of economic sanctions on Ankara in retaliation.

Hurriyet said the man was arrested in a restaurant in the Aegean coastal city of Izmir in a group of 14 people, all of whom were detained. It did not say why they were arrested.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-mideast-crisis-turkey-russia-pilot-idUKKCN0WX20W?rpc=401

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3. Turkey’s Erdogan came to Washington, and things got a bit crazy

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An editor at Foreign Policy magazine filmed the disturbances and then went on to tweet how D.C. police were being compelled to separate protesters from Erdogan's bodyguards:

This is happening outside Brookings pic.twitter.com/dG4QQZ32xd

— Yochi Dreazen (@yochidreazen) March 31, 2016

Never seen anything like this:a female protester just tackled. DC cops are in the street trying to keep Turkish guards from hurting folks

— Yochi Dreazen (@yochidreazen) March 31, 2016

Another journalist at the magazine reported scuffles between Turkish guards and Brookings staff members. They had a more detailed account here.

In front of Brookings for Turkish Pres. Erdogan speech, one of his security assaulted Brookings employee. It's crazy

— paul mcleary (@paulmcleary) March 31, 2016

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/03/31/turkeys-erdogan-came-to-washington-and-things-got-a-bit-crazy/

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4. News Quiz: Trump Rally or Erdogan Event?

One of them is an authoritarian obsessed with Twitter who threatens the press and incites violence against protesters, and the other is Donald Trump. Can you identify the demagogue whose supporters were behind these recent attacks on protesters?

https://theintercept.com/2016/03/31/news-quiz-erdogan-event-trump-rally/

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5. PKK militant group claims responsibility for Turkish car bombing: website

The outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) on Friday claimed responsibility for a car bomb attack a day earlier that killed seven police officers and wounded 27 people in southeast Turkey's Diyarbakir city, a statement on a PKK website said.

The attack, a day before Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu's visit to the largely Kurdish southeast, was one of the larger car bombings in months of violence in the region.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-turkey-blast-pkk-idUSKCN0WY4P0

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6. Car Bomb Kills 7 Turkish Police Officers in Diyarbakir

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey — A car bomb killed seven police officers and wounded around two dozen people in the southeastern Turkish city of Diyarbakir on Thursday, security sources and officials said, a day before the prime minister was to visit the biggest city in the largely Kurdish southeast.

A parked car laden with explosives was detonated by remote control as a minibus carrying the police officers turned a corner on a busy street, the officials said, adding that civilians were also among the wounded.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is on a visit to Washington for meetings on nuclear security, denounced the attack, saying it showed the “ugly face” of militants “as they are cornered.”

In a speech to the Brookings Institution, Mr. Erdogan said: “This shows terrorism’s ugly face again. The determination of our security forces will, God willing, put an end” to it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/01/world/europe/turkey-diyarbakir-bomb.html

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7. After an Indictment, Turks Give U.S. Prosecutor a Hero’s Welcome Online

ISTANBUL — The indictment of a prominent Turkish businessman unsealed last week has made an unlikely hero of a man most Turks had never heard of: Preet Bharara, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, who brought the charges against the tycoon, Reza Zarrab.

In recent days, as news of Mr. Zarrab’s arrest circulated here, Mr. Bharara became a social media sensation among Turks who have increasingly lost confidence in the independence of their country’s institutions, particularly the judiciary, after a Tuesday morning post on Twitter: “Reza Zarrab to soon face American justice in a Manhattan courtroom.”

Since that message was posted, the number of Mr. Bharara’s Twitter followers has soared to 245,000 from a few thousand. An anonymous poem written in Turkish about Mr. Bharara, which notes his reputation as a fearless prosecutor of Wall Street malfeasance, gained traction online and begins, “There is a prosecutor in America, he is unshakably loyal to the law, now it is the turn of Reza, what a great man you are, Preet Bharara.”

Countless Turks have sent Mr. Bharara messages on Twitter, congratulating his efforts, and he responded to one post in which the writer offered any number of gifts from Turkey: raki, a Turkish liquor; a carpet; kebab; or Turkish delight.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/27/world/europe/turkey-preet-bharara-reza-zarrab-indictment.html