Cyberpower crushes coup
medium.com
medium.com
My concern with this coup is that the results of it failing are going to be worse for the Turkish people than if it had succeeded.
https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/4t4ke5/pro_erdogan_is...
The Turks don't want another Syria or Libia where western backed rebels have made those places no-go countries. Turkey at least has a very friendly and thriving tourism eco system.
> Turkey at least has a very friendly and thriving tourism eco system.
The main airport was bombed in a terrorist attack this month.
And enough of that evil western/jew outsiders scapegoats conspiracy theory's to avoid the realization that a whole culture produces failing governments on a regular basis.
Those rebels are mainly backed up by local powers- Saudi arabia, Iran and yes turkey.
Something in these cultures is unable to keep institutions and democracy alive. And the scapegoats all sound so old, shall i list them? The western media, decadence, capitalism, socialism, christianity, judaism, budhism, sports, TV, music, the internet the list of evildoers is endless. They where all eliminated in experiments, and the evidence is there, that they are not the things holding these societys back.
Why not for once, own these mistakes and realize all those creepy crawly's from outside are just fleas biting a already diseased dog.
And yes, its everywhere the same symptom, in every country that becomes islamic. And the deflection-method that the social reality produced by a cultural system are not connected to the very system, has gone out of the window too by the way.
Here is the question wanting a answer:
What in these culturs undermines institutions to work correctly?
What destroys the ability of judges to oppose governments?
What creates this wish to go back towards a perfect time- and time where the lack of modern medicine would have killed half of those wishing back to these times?
What undermines the concept of a human live being sacred?
I hate cheering for the military here, but they released turkey back into democracy several times. Islamic dictators did this nowhere.
<edited to be less inflamatory.. i really want this discussed>
If we think of this as Islamic nationalism, it fits the pattern where things get really bad for common people, and someone rallies them against a perceived other in order to consolidate his own power.
Be wary of anyone who wants to blame an out-group for your economic issues, be it Muslims, Mexicans, infidels, Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, etc. (Why I'm afraid of Trump).
I think sitting at our cushy desk jobs in the west it is hard to empathize with the real hardship people have been experiencing in that region for a long time.
I have no knowledge of the causal direction here, honestly. I think there's an assumption by some vocal pundits that it's Islam -> holy war -> poverty.
I don't think that's clear. More likely it's poverty -> malleable population -> some cause promises to make things good again (Like they were in the caliphate, like they were in any fabled past) -> people believe it and fight for it. There's historical precedent for this.
(Which of course exacerbates the poverty because of wanton destruction of capital/infrastructure, people not being able to leave home, intelligentsia flight, etc). Eventually you get some version of an autocracy. The type of autocracy is to some extent irrelevant, although theocratic autocracies appear to be disproportionately brutal...
http://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/491501/will-the-middl...
But it's also worth pointing out that outside of the west and regions where the local population was so thoroughly decimated as to make the population effectively European (e.g., US and Canada), free market secular democracies are pretty rare.
I know some pretty awesome Pakistani programmers- but they all left there home-country to live somewhere else. They had some "doing well" family background though.
If poverty eats it all, via corruption, would it help to help founders in these states to hide there (relative) "wealth", and the existence of there company/products? Could IP be protected from illegal seezing of governments, by market pressure? Is that even possible - a stealth startup?
Ironically, anyone who googles "Rojava" or "north kurdistan democracy" will discover people far ahead of the western powers in terms of democracy. Absolutely fundamental to understanding Turkey.
Furthermore, anyone can read things like: (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9ta...), or about US support of Saudi Arabia's dictatorship, etc. What's their real problem? Living on top of the oil.
Truly basic things, easier than anything in software.
The Kurd's will build another formidable dictatorship once there first state is really officially established, and the outside pressure is gone. There are power hungry psychopaths in every society, and not having plans for institutions that keep those at bay and busy will allow them to gain control.
Everyone can be a saint without woman and vine available.
Nobody benefits from a failed coup like Erdogan, he now has the license to make Military in his image and the last pillar of secularism in Turkey is Kaput!
I see this latter failure as a general failure throughout the way the West interacts with Islamic nations. We've allowed secularism to become a tarnished brand, associated with military strong-men, instead of promoting it as the way to rights and education for women and freedom from religious totalitarianism.
To engineer something like that, yes, that sounds very complicated. But to see an opportunity rise and grab it, does not sound impossible. It's plausible, I'd say. I look forward to watch the documentary in 30 years... ?
This shall not end well.
What would a coup solve actually? Does it change people's mind? It is this kind of disrespect to voters which gave rise to popularity of Erdogan in his political life. People are not sheep(sometimes) and they get angry if their choice in polls affected in dirty ways.
For the most of the people in Turkey, this wasn't about the Erdogan. This coup attempt was about democracy and freedom. Most people doesn't think everything is roses, they only think coup would be the worst.
One more thing I noticed is that some people in the world seems that they don't have any disgust for a coup. Turkey has a long history of coups and elder people have told many stories about them. I think that brings some education.
Basically the theory is that there was a very weak plan in effect that the government knew about, and helped move it along (to get it started). While being completely prepared to deal with it.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-07-16/erdogans-counter-co...
I haven't read that article, but it's zerohedge and so should be taken with a generous pinch of salt.
Could also be a hybrid: anyone in power in Turkey who pisses off enough people would expect a coup at any point, and therefore not only protect against it, but have a few ideas on how to greatly benefit. Like Saddam Hussein after failed coups.
For a NATO-trained military, this was a horrible coup. It was so bad that I seriously wonder if it's not a false flag operation. I doubt it, but I wonder.
The NATO allies have a real mess on their hands. If the people of Turkey truly support an endless reign of a single party that's slowly causing more and more destabilization in the region, and is purging the courts and military of educated, secular actors? This is about as bad as it gets long-term. Turkey is slowly ditching Attaturk.
Oddly, because of the coup failure, assuming we have a Chavez-style "democracy" now, the only recourse for social change is assassination. So there'll be a bloody purge, and then social change, when it does happen (from either outside or inside factors), will be much more bloody than this simple coup this time around would have been.
This is all kinds of bad. Very sad for the people of Turkey.
There are multiple factors here.
This is article does wear some rose colored glasses given the info sec background of the author about the prominence of cyberpower (he may have a point, but that is not primary point of failure).
Coups are possibly in modern day, take a look at Egypt.
I agree with most points and I'd say that simply cutting power to major cities in Turkey during this event could have changed the outcome. It would have provided a total communication blackout which would have neutralized social or 'cyber' as he calls it and would have created fear (more than pre internet because we're so reliant on it) which would have put the military in a position to 'restore order'.
But on other days, people here are concerned about interlinked security and military liaisons constituting a Deep State in their own countries, limiting autonomy and democracy.
Have you considered that the rise of Islamism is in part caused by the fact that secular military and security services in Islamic countries were coopted to some degree, and that religious-based politics is harder to subvert in that way?
Anyway, the Deep State has proven to be brittle, unreliable, and prone to blowback.
Initially I was open to the idea that the coup was what the mainstream media said it was, however, the internet has opened me up to the idea that the whole thing was staged. This analysis better fits my earlier private observation that things weren't quite what they seemed to be.
So, my thinking is that the new internet medium (new for coups) will work against the 'President' because word on the street will be that he faked the coup. This word on the street will be spread by internet and messenger chat. If this becomes all pervasive then the 'President' really does end up getting himself killed, his regime completely overthrown, game over. I also believe he is one of those leaders that the U.S. can let go of, Turkey may be NATO but the leader is interchangeable.
He went against his best ally at the time, the fallout was both sides having their secrets made public by the other. However, he increased his votes in the next election as his supporters, with his leadership created a nation-wide "OMG he's being framed please ignore all the evidence saying otherwise" campaign.
He is also missing a university diploma without which he can't be the president and the one he has used till the news broke has been shown to be fake (dates, signature and department do not match). The government's TV channel removed all the videos of him talking about his university days and no news channel other than the ones who are labeled as "conspiracy theorists" dared to publish anything about it.
And some of my friends still ask me if I want to go back to Turkey...
The only evidence I see here of "cyberpower" stopping the coup is Erdogan having given a statement via FaceTime on television. Yes, that's amusing to see, but it doesn't tell us anything about coups.
Batteries, generators and wi-fi, coupled with low-power operation modes for modern equipment, are going to be a quick answer to that strategy.
Cutting power will buy less than a week of opportunity, and piss off LOTS of other ordinarily unmotivated, apolitical people.
You don't need a week; if you don't have any serious opposition under control within a few hours, you've lost.
It might be a move interpreted in ways so politically costly, that you'd only trade a serious opponent in the short term, for an inertia of lasting public resentment that creates larger enemies down the road.
But, break some eggs and make an omelet. What do I know?
How does the wifi work? How does the internet work? By electricity, and buildings that run using electricity. My router can run from a battery, but if my ISP isn't working, or if the fibre cabinet is out of power....
And I live in the oppositions main stronghold when it happened.
Couple hours of lack of information is all you need, and is easiest way to cut all with a single switch.
If your power cut out right now, how long till you have net? Your neighbors? Your block? Weeks.
Was rather brilliant to be honest.
so what would be modern coup tactics? The medium article mentions that there are more communication channels that need seizing in order to be effective.
1) https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jul/16/turkey...
FTFY