By Covert Geopolitics
There’s now a very reliable intelligence report that the military coup against Turkish dictator Erdogan may have been for real and was instigated with foreign instructions, notably from the CIA, after he apologized to Vladimir Putin more than a week ago, for the unprovoked downing of one Sukhoi Su-24 jet fighter in Syria, late last year.
What is more interesting is that those two pilots involved in the shooting of the Russian warplane were also involved in the failed coup, and were subsequently arrested 2 days after the coup. Were the pilots given combat instructions from the US military base inside Turkey?
The answer to that question would be an affirmative, as Erdogan has already shifted his position to the preservation of President Assad in Syria, accordingly to an Iranian intelligent report.
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TEHRAN (FNA) – Arab media outlets quoted diplomats in Ankara as disclosing that Turkey’s President Erdogan was alerted by Russia against an imminent army coup hours before it was initiated on Friday, while a western media outlet said Erdogan asked his supporters to remain in the streets after receiving advice from Tehran.
Several Arab media outlets quoted diplomatic sources in Ankara as saying that Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization, known locally as the MIT, received intel from its Russian counterpart that warned of an impending coup in the Muslim state.
The unnamed diplomats said the Russian army in the region had intercepted highly sensitive army exchanges and encoded radio messages showing that the Turkish army was readying to stage a coup against the administration in Ankara.
The exchanges included dispatch of several army choppers to President Erdogan’s resort hotel to arrest or kill the president.
The diplomats were not sure of the Russian station that had intercepted the exchanges, but said the Russian army intelligence unit deployed in Khmeimim (also called Hmeimim) in Syria’s Northern province of Lattakia is reportedly equipped with state-of-the-art electronic and eavesdropping systems to gather highly sensitive information for the Russian squadrons that are on an anti-terrorism mission in Syria.
Khmeimim in Northwestern Syria is the only Russian air force base in the war-ravaged country that provides cover for Syrian army and popular forces in multiple fronts across the country, in addition to bombing missions against terrorist targets. The Russian naval fleet, including its only aircraft carrier, are deployed along the coasts of Lattakia border province to provide logistical aid to the air base in a short time. Meantime, Russia has deployed its highly sophisticated S-400 air defense shield at Khmeimim and announced that it covers the entire Syrian skies with the same air defense system.
Syrian President, Bashar Al-Assad
Last year, Turkey shot down a Russian Sukhoi bomber over Syrian skies and President Erdogan who was then a staunch enemy of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad rejected extending an apology to Moscow for about a year, although economic sanctions by Russia as well as growing victories by the Syrian army, popular forces, Hezbollah fighters, Iranian advisors and Russian air force that cornered the terrorists in Syria and similar victories against ISIL in Iraq convinced the Turkish president to not just apologize for the Sukhoi incident, but also show signs of a U-turn in foreign policy, saying that he is dropping his opposition to President Assad.
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13950430001452
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If these are the real facts on the ground, we can deduce that Erdogan’s frustration with NATO might be caused by one, or all of the following:
· EU’s flip-flopping on significant issues like what to do with the refugees that it has to deal with as European countries are shutting down their borders.
· The supposed $3 billion EU refugee fund that Turkey is asking may not have been delivered considering the financial turmoil plaguing the union. Instead,
· Germany’s Bundestag made an offensive by recognizing the Armenian Genocide, effectively shutting down Turkey’s chance for EU membership. The EU Parliament itself is requiring Turkey to recognize the Armenian Genocide as one of the preconditions to its EU membership.
· Erdogan may have felt he’s just being used for Syrian oil smuggling by Western interests, and the ultimate removal of Syrian President Assad, on top of the country being utilized as launching pad for military interventions in the region though the US military base.
With all of the above and the recent Brexit, Erdogan may have come to his senses and abandoned his EU membership ambition, hence the decision to also withdraw from his participation to the regime change being instigated in Syria through the CIA trained and funded Daesh terrorists, and his recent pivot to Russia.
The two pilots manning the cockpit of the F16 jet fighter used in the shooting down of the Russian plane last year were said to be working for the CIA and were the ones given the same instructions to kill Erdogan during the coup d’etat.
The two CIA pilots have since been arrested.
Four days after the coup, officials in Ankara announced that the two Turkish pilots who played a role in the downing of the Russian plane in November were in custody over the recent failed coup. “Two pilots who were part of the operation to down the Russian Su-24 in November 2015 are in custody,” a Turkish official told journalists on Tuesday, adding that they were detained over links to the coup bid.
Russian President Vladimir Putin called his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday, describing the attempted coup as unacceptable and voicing hope for a speedy return to stability.
The diplomatic sources said the shift in Erdogan’s foreign policy stated only a week before the coup has been “a major cause pushing several foreign states to provoke and promise support for the army to stage the coup, and the same shift also saved him” as it was not clear if the Russians would provide Ankara with their intel, otherwise.
Officials of neither country have made any comment on the report yet. In Ankara, official sources, including the Army itself, confirmed that the Turkish army’s top generals had been informed of last week’s coup by the MIT hours before the plot came into action.
A statement issued by the army on July 19 described the events that took place on July 15, saying a majority within the military managed to suppress the coup attempt due to information provided by the MIT some five hours before the coup plot became public, national newspaper Hurriyet reported.
“The information given by the National Intelligence Organization on July 15, 2016, at around 4:00 p.m. was evaluated at the General Staff headquarters with the attendance of Chief of Staff General Hulusi Akar, Chief of the Army General Salih Zeki Colak and Deputy Chief of Staff General Yasar Guler.”
In order to counter the coup, high ranking officials within the Turkish army gave orders for all air and ground forces around the country to immediately cease operations including military vehicles such as tanks, planes and helicopters.
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13950430001452
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Earlier reports, while the coup was still in progress, indicated that the coup plotters initiated the action ahead of schedule upon knowing that the plan was leaked to the authorities.
A report by Al-Jazeera Arabic suggests the coup plotters initiated the operation six hours ahead of time as they had previously planned to launch the coup at 3:00 a.m. local time on July 16.
While the report does not indicate the reason for the coup being initiated ahead of time, the revelation by the military suggests the coup plotters understood their plans had been compromised and decided to act.
Reports also suggest the coup plotters had orders to kidnap or kill President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as helicopters headed toward the hotel he was staying in at the holiday resort of Marmaris. But Erdogan had left 44 minutes before they arrived, according to Al-Jazeera’s report.
The official statements coming out from Ankara are in full compliance with the Arab media reports quoting the diplomatic sources on the Russian intel.
Only four days after the coup, Erdogan appeared on the media saying that he plans to declare a crucial turn in foreign policy that would “end differences with Turkey’s neighboring states”.
Less than a day later, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced that President Erdogan would visit Russia early in August to meet with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
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The Iranian support was also very notable during the event. It must be understood that during the US embargo against Iran, it was Turkey that was helping Iran to survive economically through a bilateral exchange known as petrogold.
Couriers carrying millions of dollars worth of gold bullion in their luggage have been flying from Istanbul to Dubai, where the gold is shipped on to Iran, according to industry sources with knowledge of the business.
The sums involved are enormous. Official Turkish trade data suggests nearly $2 billion worth of gold was sent to Dubai on behalf of Iranian buyers in August. The shipments help Tehran manage its finances in the face of Western financial sanctions.
The sanctions, imposed over Iran’s disputed nuclear program, have largely frozen it out of the global banking system, making it hard for it to conduct international money transfers. By using physical gold, Iran can continue to move its wealth across borders.
http://in.reuters.com/article/us-emirates-iran-gold-idINBRE89M0SW20121023
So with this in mind, it’s very clear that Turkey is also trying to survive from CIA diktats when it was playing their dangerous games in the region. Iran is not shy on returning the favor.
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