by Tim Drayton » Wed Sep 21, 2016 3:29 pm
The most curious and puzzling aspect of the 15 July coup - apart from the fact that you carry out coups in the middle of the night and not early in the evening when everybody is awake - is the missing four hours. It has been established that the Turkish intelligence service learned of the coup very soon after it started. On the other hand, according to President Erdoğan's account of the events, he didn't find out about the coup until four hours later. Given that Erdoğan has the intelligence service in his pocket and its boss, Hakan Fidan, is widely considered to be his place man, it defies belief that he didn't know about something so crucial when the intelligence service did. All this lends credence to theories that the coup was somehow started by one grouping or other, perhaps by tricking the Gulenists embedded in the armed forces that if they made the first move they would follow suit, who then used it to threaten Erdoğan to do their bidding otherwise they would back the coup and Erdoğan would be dead. The missing four hours could have been the time when these negotiations were taking place. It is noteworthy that the commandos who were sent to the hotel where Erdoğan was staying said in their testimony that they were sure they could have finished off the job if allowed to move in and they felt they were being held back.
If it was the US that was involved, I think this could explain why Erdoğan went off to meet Putin and acted in such a conciliatory manner. I have already come to the conclusion that the Americans and Russians have come to some kind of secret deal over Syria and Iraq, and it could be that they needed to Turkey to change its stance towards these countries and Russia, and they had to force Erdoğan to change his line. This would mean that the meeting in Moscow was an act of compliance with US wishes rather than being a sign of Turkey shifting axis, which is hard to believe.
