Jackson Blair

Position Final Draft

Professor Nathan Cole
English 2010
July 30, 2016

Failed Coup, False Flag

On Friday July 15th 2016 lower ranking members of the Turkish military
attempted to take power from the government in a coup. The coup consisted largely
of small military factions taking to the street, in total killing just under 300 people
and injuring at least 1,400 more (CNN, 2016). By midnight they had their message
sent out to the media. Shortly after the media release, President Ergodan urged his
supporters to rally in the streets against those involved in the coup. Just before 3:00
AM the Turkish National Intelligence unit confirmed that the coup was over. After the
dust settled a review of the events post-coup make it evident that the coup was
staged as a false-flag operation that Ergodan orchestrated to further his own
political agenda, seize power, and remove his opposition from positions of authority
within the government. There are three main considerations that support the
revelation that this was undoubtedly a false flag operation The current role Turkey
has in shaping the middle east, the Turkish governments reaction to the coup, in
addition to the power Ergodan now has.
To understand where we are now it is important to understand how the
middle east grew and developed over the last few decades. In the 1970s the leader
of Afghanistan Hafizullah Amin attempted to create a communist regime while
abolishing the Afghan constitution. The Muslims in Afghanistan resisted and formed
a rebellion to overthrow Amin. In response to the uprising the Soviet Union sent
75,000 troops into Afghanistan to protect their interests in the middle east. The end
goal for the Soviets was to implant Babrak Karmal, the leader of the Peoples

Democratic Party of Afghanistan, as the new president. The Soviet rule of

Afghanistan lasted until 1989. The Taliban was formed out of resistance to the
Soviet occupation, and was funded by the CIA and the Pakistani Inter-Services
Intelligence group. In post-Soviet era Afghanistan there was a power struggle
between many different mujahideen (jihadist) groups. In 1994 the Taliban entered
the second largest city in Afghanistan, Kandahar, and pandered support with
promises of peace. By 1996 the Taliban was able to seize power in the capital of
Kabul. From there they were able to spread to an estimated 90% of the country.
(CFR, 2014) Once in power they harbored high ranking members of Al Qaeda until
2001 when the United States intervened. Once the United States had toppled the
Taliban rule in Afghanistan a few key leaders fled to Pakistan, where Al Qaeda
originated.
In 1988 in direct response to the prolonged Soviet occupation of Afghanistan
Osama Bin Laden formed a mujahideen group in an attempt to take power. This
group would later be named Al Qaeda, and was in direct competition with the
Taliban in a bid for power. In the early 90s once the Taliban started taking control
over Afghanistan the operation was moved into Sudan until 1998 when Al Qaeda
was exiled by the Sudanese government. After this they returned to Afghanistan
and Bin Laden issued a declaration against the United States as part of the Jihadist
directive, literally meaning anyone who follows the Jihad would also become an
enemy of the United States. After the 9/11 attacks in the United States we asked the
Taliban to give us Bin Laden, when they failed to comply we launched a military
intervention into Afghanistan in late 2001. Within a few months we had driven Al
Qaeda back into Pakistan. Once in Pakistan they reorganized themselves and began
to Attack Saudi Arabia. Over the next few years many different offshoots of Al

Qaeda are formed, and Bin Laden started to lose power and control over the
operations due to how spread out they are. The offshoots continued to operate
under their own names and objectives until 2012 when they are ordered to become
involved in the violence and rebellion happening in Syria which was under Assads
rule. A sect of Al Qaeda renames themselves the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham.
By 2013 ISIS had completely separated themselves from the Main Al Qaeda group.
In early 2014 ISIS was able to seize power in Iraq and spread operations throughout
Syria. (Foreign Policy, 2014)
This brings us back to Turkey, bordered on the South by Syria, home to ISIS.
For the last several years Turkey has told the United States that it doesnt support
ISIS while acting in a completely contradictory manner. Their border with Syria is
largely unguarded and is a known transportation path for ISIS insurgents returning
home (Newsweek, 2015). Ergodan is known to oppose Syria and has previously sent
Turkish military to fight against Assads regime, which is a conceivable reason for
him to back ISIS, they have the shared goal of power in Syria. In November of 2015
Turkey shot down a Russian aircraft, prompting Russia to retaliate and provide more
backing to Assad in Syria to prevent any Turkish advancements towards obtaining
power in Syria. Additionally, in May Russia provided evidence at a United Nations
meeting proving that Turkey had purchased oil from ISIS that was stolen from Syria,
as well as supplying them with the means to create explosive devices that were
used in a lot of their attacks. (Asbarez, 2016). When the United States raided the
housing compound of the Chief Financial officer of ISIS Abu Sayyaf we found a
wealth of information on documents and flash drives proving that Turkey has been
enabling ISIS to smuggle weapons and Oil across their border. (Business Insider,
2015). Overall Turkey is in a position where they can directly influence the course of

events in relation to the current ISIS threat. Turkeys actions in the coming months
will have a direct correlation to the success of ISISs endeavors. They have two
potential options, the first being they comply with the expectations of the United
States and NATO by providing additional support and border control with Syria,
cutting off a major trade route used by ISIS, this option backs ISIS into a corner, and
removes a large portion of their funding. Option number 2 contributes to the
success of ISIS, with political opposition removed from power, Ergodan is in a much
better position to formally support ISIS in their conquest of Syria, giving them much
more power and influence in the region, up until now, the support offered has
largely been in shadow and has been denied despite the US having proof it is
happening.
Due to the amount of opposing political agendas within the Middle East
Ergodan would have to be sure that his government was behind his every decision,
and would need to remove any opposition from their position of power in order to
replace them with those he knows are loyal to him. Since the failed coup the Turkish
government has taken extreme measures to ensure that anyone connected with the
coup is imprisoned or removed from power. While not a complete list, BBC reports
that 15,200 members of the Ministry of Education have been sacked, 21,000
teachers had their teaching licenses revoked, 1,577 university Deans have been
told to quit, 8000 police officers were removed from the force, 1,500 members of
the ministry of finance were fired, and 257 of the Prime Ministers office staff were
removed. In addition to those listed above the Turkish Government has detained an
additional 6000 people, including 99 ranking military officers (CNN, 2016), 2745
judges known to oppose his plans and revoked the license of 24 media companies
that are linked to a former political opponent Fethullah Gulen. (Your News Wire,

2016). To justify this Ergodan is blaming the Coup on Fethullah Gulen who runs a
network of schools across the country. (BBC, 2016) Ergodan took it a step further
and demanded that the United States extradite Gulen to Turkey, trying to leverage
his history of cooperating with our requests for Turkey to Extradite terrorists to the
United States. (The Guardian, 2016). Being quoted as saying the coup was a gift
from god It is clear that Ergodan is using the coup to further his own political
agenda and clean house in response to a coup that they have yet to determine with
hard evidence who orchestrated.
After the coup Turkey declared a national state of emergency that gives
Ergodan and his council the power to enact any law and take any action they see fit
for the next three months with no ability for intervention from parliament to repeal.
There is rumor of considerations of enacting the death penalty for anyone found to
be involved in the coup. This means that the Turkish government has given
themselves absolute power in a bid for control.
An objective review of the way events has played out shows that everything
is pandering to Ergodans goals and has served to give him more power than he had
before. A few more key pieces of information regarding the events. During the
middle of the Coup Ergodan flew back into Turkey from the south west, while the
sect of the military allegedly behind the coup had control over the air force. If this
was the case, Ergodan would not have risked flying into the country. Additionally,
Ergodan was supposed to be staying at a hotel in Marmaris that was attacked
Saturday morning less than an hour after the attack the media puts out a live
broadcast of his speech where he is at an airport in Istanbul 750 kilometers away.
(Zerohedge, 2016).

In conclusion, Turkey has a history of operating with known terrorist

organizations under the Ergodan regime, they are directly profiting and benefiting
from the ISIS actions in Syria, they have removed all opposition from places of
authority, and have given themselves absolute power to do what they would like
with the government. With all of this in mind it is abundantly clear that the failed
Coup is a false-flag operation designed to give Ergodan the means to remove his
opposition from power, and make movements to create a totalitarian regime in
Turkey. This totalitarian regime will act in a way that counters the US objective, and
will likely undo a lot of the work we have put into creating the foundation of political
stability in the Middle East.

Bibliography

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July 2016.

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"At UN, Russia Makes Case for Turkey-ISIS Ties." Asbarez. N.p., 26 May 2016. Web. 21 July
2016.
Bertrand, Natasha. "Senior Western Official: Links between Turkey and ISIS Are Now
'undeniable'" Business Insider. N.p., 28 July 2015. Web. 21 July 2016.
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