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Update: The coup appears to have been unsuccessful, and President Erdogan's plane is reportedly landing in Istanbul.
Update 2: Erdogan appears poised to reassert his power: "After the earlier recorded statement from Erdogan, the president is now addressing the media. He says the uprising was an act of treason and those responsible will pay a heavy price. It was carried out by a minority within the military who can't stomach unity of the country, Erdogan says. He says the uprising will be a reason to clean up the army."
Attempted military coup in Turkey
A faction of the Turkish military is attempting a coup in Turkey (alternative link) claiming that "democratic and secular rule of law has been eroded by the Erdogan government" and control is now in the hands of a "Peace Council". Reports of bridges over the Bosporos blocked to traffic, heavy police and military presence in Istanbul with exchanges of gunfire reported, low flying military aircraft over the city and all airports in the country are now closed. Social media services, Facebook, Twitter, etc., appear to have been blocked. President Erdogan is reportedly "safe" and expected to make a statement soon.
Turkey's military has officially declared a coup and said that it has "taken control of the country" [and] wants "to reinstall the constitutional order, democracy, human rights and freedoms, to ensure that the rule of law once again reigns in the country, for the law and order to be reinstated."
The military statement went on to say that "all international agreements and commitments will remain. We pledge that good relations with all world countries will continue."
[...] Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said that a number of generals are involved in the takeover of the government. He vowed that the "perpetrators" will be contained, adding that the government "will never give up democracy". [...] Istanbul's Ataturk international airport has been shut down, and all flights have been cancelled.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/07/turkey-military-blocks-bridges-istanbul-160715195444742.html
Turkey Coup
The Turkish military traditionally considered itself the protector of the secular nature of the Turkish State. Since about 21:30h CET it appears they -- or at least a part of the Turkish Army -- has acted on this traditional role.
The bridges over the Bosporus, connecting the European and the Asian parts of Istanbul, have been occupied by the military -- soldiers shouting that a curfew has been imposed. Istanbul airport has been shut down, and the borders sealed off. Shots have been heard in the neigborhood of both Army Headquarters, and the headquarter of the ruling AKP party. Rumor has it that the Chief Staff of the Army -- an Erdogan sympathizer -- has been taken hostage in the Army Headquarters. Rumors are that military and police are standing opposed to each other in Istanbul, while Police and/or Army helicopters slowly circle over the city, and tanks have appeared in the streets.
The action isn't limited to Istanbul -- reports of unrest are also coming in from Izmir and Ankara.
Reports coming in from anonymous sources within the EU diplomatic services claim that a significant part of the Army is behind the coup, which appears to be well planned. President Erdogan, apparently currently in Mongolia, has called upon the Turkish people to go on the streets, negating the evening clock reported to be installed by the military.
The last military coup in Turkey dates from 1980.
Original Submission #1 Original Submission #2 Original Submission #3
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Friday July 15 2016, @10:38PM
The NATO treaty holds that an attack on any one member is regarded as an attack on all.
This would suggest that the US is obligated to assist Erdogan. Is that really the case?
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(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday July 15 2016, @10:41PM
This is internal, so nope.
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(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 15 2016, @10:42PM
They had been a NATO member for quite some time, and there had been buncha military coup in that time. We assists Turkey, we don't assist Erdogan.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday July 15 2016, @10:43PM
Probably not. It's an "internal" affair where the assailants are the local military, and the victim was not our best friend.
More like a summer-time reorg, really ... don't bug our good customers, would you?
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 15 2016, @10:43PM
The US has "strategic" nuclear weapons in Turkey. Not sure what they are supposed to do, what they should do or what they will do.
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Friday July 15 2016, @11:07PM
Yes, that was true as of 2010. The same was true of Belgium, Italy, Germany and the Netherlands (p. 20 of source).
http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/files/us-tactical-nuclearweapons-in-europe.pdf [harvard.edu]
In 1962 the Cuban Missile Crisis was resolved when Kennedy secretly agreed to Khruschev's demand that U.S. missiles be removed from Turkey.
http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/nsa/cuba_mis_cri/moment.htm [gwu.edu]
In the present day, those air-carried bombs might be worrisome to Russians.
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Friday July 15 2016, @11:13PM
Correction, the U.S. has B-61 nuclear bombs in Turkey. They're deemed "tactical" not "strategic" but they can still go boom. They're not rockets/missiles; they're dropped from an aircraft.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B61_nuclear_bomb [wikipedia.org]
http://www.nti.org/learn/countries/turkey/ [nti.org]
http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/files/us-tactical-nuclearweapons-in-europe.pdf [harvard.edu] (see p. 20 and p. 29)
(Score: 2) by DECbot on Friday July 15 2016, @11:07PM
The powers that be will determine that Turkey is too unstable to leave the rockets there. Look, these bombs have their own engines attached, so we'll just fire up the rockets and send them back home...
Just look at SpaceX, they land rockets all the time!
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(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday July 16 2016, @12:41AM
Germany withdrew their AA missiles [rt.com] from Turkey's border with Syria last year.
(Score: 2) by Yog-Yogguth on Saturday July 16 2016, @08:31PM
I know what they're supposed to do, they're supposed to go "Boom!" :P
What's next is that the purges continue even stronger than before, not just in the armed forces but in the judiciary (1200+ judges already sacked in a few hours) and in the media and so on.
It is claimed that Erdogan got 52% of the votes last time, if those are actual votes then this failed coup was the final whimper against islam in that country.
Even as a desperate last attempt (I'm guessing this is what the coup attempt was) I'm surprised they had that last chance, I thought the old guard had been so severely weakened that the secular parts of the military couldn't even attempt a coup.
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(Score: 3, Funny) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Friday July 15 2016, @10:49PM
I read "an attack on one is an attack on all" as a reference to international attacks. This affair is entirely internal. I don't know what the NATO policy (if there is one) would be. It might well be that the whole thing has been orchestrated by the US anyway, in which case you can expect lots of deeply apologetic mumbling about unfortunately not having the political capital / respecting sovereign states / all our aircraft carriers are washing their hair tonight, sorry we can't come out.