As Erdogan Faces Turkish Coup, The Guy Who Once Banned Social Media Sites, Forced To Address Nation Via Facetime & Twitter
from the digital-irony dept
We've written a fair amount about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Lately, it's mostly been about his ridiculously thin skin over insults, and his willingness to take his hurt feelings international. But, even prior to that, he had a history of irrational hating on social media. Back when he was Prime Minister, he tried to blame Twitter for social unrest, even going so far as to order it banned in the country. And, when that failed, he actually sued his own government over the failure to block content on Twitter that he disliked.Now, as you hopefully know from news sources other than Techdirt, as I write this, it appears that there's a military coup going on in Turkey, trying to usurp Erdogan. As part of that effort, all those social media sites that Erdogan himself does not like, including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are being blocked. For Erdogan himself, that's meant that he's been cut off from his own means of communication to the public, leaving him to use Apple's Facetime to call a local TV station to put him on the air:
Turkish TV broadcasts a message from Erdogan claiming he's in control and will punish the coup leaders pic.twitter.com/8grmFarUfl
— Eliot Higgins (@EliotHiggins) July 15, 2016
See the shocking Turkish coup on the amazing Facebook Livehttps://t.co/uImGjxXXRm pic.twitter.com/vTBp8S8cjJ
— Chemi Shalev (@ChemiShalev) July 15, 2016
The revolution will be televised - extraordinary scenes from Ataturk airport on Periscope pic.twitter.com/LIgByX6OwC
— Rory Cellan-Jones (@ruskin147) July 15, 2016
Update: And the irony gets thicker. Erdogan is now reaching out to the public... via Twitter:
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Filed Under: coup, facetime, recep tayyip erdogan, social media, turkey
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This is good
The Turkish military have a strong history of coups to restore democracy, free law, and a secular (non "islamist") society. These are all aligned with not only what *we* (outsiders) want but also what the Turks want.
Erdogan has been slowly working his way up to be President For Life™ and this will put a stop to that.
This is good for Europe. This is good for the US. This is good for Israel. This may improve things with Russia. It won't change anything with Kurds or Syrians.
Not all coups are bad.
Ehud
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Ouch! Guess he's going to hang out with Julian Assange...
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Re: This is good
Erdogan is a nasty piece of work - every opposition party opposes this!
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On the bright side
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So...
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Re: Re: This is good
In Turkey, some variation of this happens about every 10 years. The 2007 one happened bloodlessly, as the militant party attempting to get elected and disband democracy disbanded themselves when the people's army rattled their sabres.
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Re: Re: This is good
Turkey is almost unique in this situation, where the military coups end in better democracy - most other countries have coups ending in military dictatorships.
Not saying that this particular coup will help restore democracy, or reduce democracy, time will tell there, but in the past, the military coups in recent Turkish history have been to restore democracy to that nation.
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Re: This is good
Please remove this comment as it violates my Intellectual Property rights. I trademarked President for Life, and own the domain, which I plan on selling to President Trump's reelection campaign.
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Educated on Trademark law
I'm a graduate of the Techdirt School on Trademark Abuse™.
Ehud®
P.S. :-) Have a great weekend!
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Re: Re: Re: This is good
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Re: a Military coup would be pro-democracy.
You know, power corrupts? Because “trust us, we’re going to restore democracy” so often turns out to be famous last words...
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Re: Re: a Military coup would be pro-democracy.
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anyway, gollum might as well embrace it, he's already got pootin's arm up his rear
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Re: Re: a Military coup would be pro-democracy.
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Re: the result seemed to be an improvement.
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Re: Re: the result seemed to be an improvement.
Way to ignore everything positive about the American Revolution and focus on the one thing that wasn't so good.
E
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You talkin to me?
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one medium avaidable in times of crisis .
Its the most democratic medium and its ironic that
erdogan is now using the medium he tried to censor in the past.
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Re: Way to ignore everything positive about the American Revolution
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Re: This is good
Not President for Life - Caliph.
His only real objection to Islamic state is that he isn't in charge of it.
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Re: Re: Re: the result seemed to be an improvement.
Not the only thing!
Without the American revolution the US would have been like Canada.
So worse healthcare was also a consequence of the American revolution.
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Re:
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Secretive coup plotters overlooked potential of civilian allies
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Re: Secretive coup plotters overlooked potential of civilian allies
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And the backlash is in
I mean: firing judges because of a military coup? He probably has a shit list of judges somewhere who did not hand out the kind of verdicts he likes for being critical.
This will get worse a lot before it gets another chance to get better.
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Re: Re: Secretive coup plotters overlooked potential of civilian allies
I am doubtful whether decapitation of the leadership would have worked in this case. Erdogan has had many years to remake the Army's officer corps, and he was acutely alert to the risk of a coup.
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Re: Re: Secretive coup plotters overlooked potential of civilian allies
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Re: Re: Re: Secretive coup plotters overlooked potential of civilian allies
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So he'll try suing them in German courts?
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Re:
And those of the remaining ones that don't fall into line as expected will likely be unseated and accused of high treason.
Erdogan is democratically legitimated. Guess who else was almost a century ago, juggling between a few leadership positions until he created his personal one.
You can elect him any time you want but you may never leave. It's not that uncommon a preposition.
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Re: On the bright side
If you want to make an alternate-reality version of The Lord of the Rings after Gollum makes it out of Mount Doom unscathed with the ring, he might be a good pick, but not while Sauron is still around.
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Re: And the backlash is in
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Re: Re: This is good
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Re: And the backlash is in
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Re: Re: Re: This is good
"The guest is sacred" is one such mechanism actually promoted even in religious/tribal contexts but it works at very limited scales.
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Re: Re:
Must be something about holding up the rule of law, not the whims of a dictator for life, who has just announced in the aftermath that he is to hold onto office until the end (of his life?).
Turdogan may not have a gold toilet but he sure is performing a golden shower on the Turkish citizens.
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Re:
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Re: Re:
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Re: Re: Re: Re: the result seemed to be an improvement.
They'd have been the underground railroad?
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Plot?
Where's the prime ring-leaders paraded on TV afterward? Instead, he's arresting a flock of Army brass that appears well in excess of the number that were needed to command that tiny amateur farce. Looks more like Erdogan just has his own enemies list and he's found or manufactured an excuse to work his way through it.
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Re: Plot?
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