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The following developments on the night of July 15 caused the coup attempt to fail:
The fate of the coup was determined by Gen. Umit Dundar, the commander of the first army in Istanbul who called Erdogan, who was on holiday in the Mediterranean resort of Marmaris, to brief him on the events; he persuaded him to come to Istanbul where his safety would be assured — instead of trying to reach Ankara. Thanks to this early warning, Erdogan quickly left Marmaris. The coup forces raided his hotel an hour after he had left it. Erdogan’s quick departure to Istanbul was one of the key elements of disrupting the coup plans.
Dundar appeared calm and informative during the press conference that was broadcast live on TV, when he declared the coup illegitimate. He said the attempt was out of the TSK's chain of command and that top commanders were being held hostage by the plotters.
Erdogan took the risk of taking about an hour-long flight from Marmaris to Istanbul, which was a relatively secure location for him given his service as the Istanbul mayor in 1994-98 and the third army’s actions to suppress the uprising there.
Most of the soldiers were conscripts who were told they were sent out into the streets “because of an exercise or a terror activity.” Small units in the streets made up of young soldiers doing their compulsory military service and who were led by junior commanders were surprised and disoriented when confronted with the opposition of the police and the masses of irate citizens. They quickly lost control.
The anti-coup reporting of mainstream TV channels offered the government a psychological advantage.
The efforts of the citizens and police persuaded and compelled the soldiers at strategic points — the bridges over the Bosporus, Istanbul Ataturk airport, Ankara’s Kizilay Square as well the presidential compound — to end their operations. The coverage of this courageous resistance of the people and police by TV channels reinforced the government’s efforts.
The opposition political parties refused to support the coup attempt.
The Land Forces Command, which carries the most weight in the TSK, lacked support.
The full siege puts the rebels of Aleppo in difficult waters: either to starve or to surrender. This has been a common tactic in the Syria war; it happened in parts of Homs in central Syria and, more recently, in the town of Zabadani in the Damascus countryside. Rebels in both these cities were forced to choose between an exit under supervision of the United Nations, or death. In both cases they agreed to be escorted from Homs and Zabadani, with their light arms, and to be resettled in Idlib, a city held by Al Qaida-linked Jabhat Al Nusra, and Al Raqqa, the provincial capital of the so-called Islamic State, or Daesh. The rebels of Aleppo will face a similar fate soon, if they fail at breaking the Syrian Army’s armed “necklace” around Aleppo.
...
The Syrian opposition is crying foul, claiming that the United States is doing nothing to help Syrian rebels in Aleppo. They believe that a secret deal has been struck between the Americans, Russians and Turks, at their expense, sacrificing the city of Aleppo in favour of the Syrian regime.
In exchange for Aleppo, the Russians will probably turn a blind eye to US advances on Minbij and Al Bu Kamal, two cities currently held by Daesh. The Turks will back off in exchange for Russian commitment to prevent the emergence of a autonomous Kurdish state on their border with Syria — a nightmare scenario for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
And as usual, we (the US) are either damned if we do or damned if we don't. Rebels are crying foul, saying we formed some sort of truce with Russia, Turks, and the Syrian gov't, while Syria is against us for supporting rebels. Why do we even get involved in these things? There is no "good side" to chose from. Let them sort out their own differences.
All I know Arcenal is we chose the wrong side. Yet again. I can't respect the leadership in America. No way in hell. Assads father did some bad things that is true and Assad has a few under his belt but there's such a thing as the common good.
Apparently this kid was a fighter for someone. Other than that I'm kind of at a loss.
It looks like they're going to try to starve the rebels out of Aleppo. They don't have the manpower to assault the city and using inordinate amounts of firepower would cause horrendous casualties among the civilians. The civvies are in a bad place, the rebels control everything in the city and are currently in no mood to surrender as far as I know. There's a lot of people going to get hungry and I think the SAA is hoping the rebels are going to end up more afraid of the people than surrendering.
I don't think it's going to work out that way and the civvies are going to suffer greatly. I really don't see any other way and if I were in charge I'd try to give the civvies some way out. I just hope they can get control from the rebels somehow.
The plan failed because they took action before the planned time. Why did they act so hastily?
The primary reason was because they knew the forthcoming Supreme Military Council, which decides on promotions and appointments of TSK generals and admirals, was set to convene the first week of August. Last year, in an Aug. 3 article for Al-Monitor titled "Shakeup expected for Turkish military leadership," I had written that one of the most important missions of newly appointed Chief of General Staff Gen. Hulusi Akar would be to combat the Gulenists in the TSK, and that there were several lists circulating with names of such officers. The AKP government was favoring a purge of these officers, while the military command was advocating a phased, deliberate process based on solid evidence.
FETO partisans in the TSK had gotten away relatively unscathed from the 2015 council meeting, but there were sure signs that this year would be different.
Developments prior to the Supreme Military Council meeting this year seem to indicate that the divergence of views between the government and the military had been somewhat reconciled. Last week, during the military espionage hearings in Izmir, six serving officers were detained, including an admiral and two generals. Four of the detained officers were consequently arrested. In an earlier "military espionage case," also in Izmir, 359 defendants, including serving officers, were all acquitted of charges of keeping secret documents.
With the indictments in last week's Izmir espionage case, the Turkish judiciary was gearing up to target about 1,000 Gulenists in the TSK prior to the supreme council meeting. With so many detentions just before the meeting, the government was intending to compel the TSK command to carry out mass purges.
When the coup planners learned of that intention, they moved up the date to precede the council meeting. This turned out to be a suicidal move.
France's foreign minister said on Sunday that questions needed to be asked on whether Turkey was a viable partner in the fight against Islamic State in Syria and would raise the issue in a coalition meeting in Washington this week
Some Little Known Reasons Why France Is on the Frontline of the War With the Islamic State
France’s persistent targeting by extremists is linked to its secretive war and occupation strategies.
By Nafeez Ahmed / AlterNet July 15, 2016
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