Turkish
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has conducted a comprehensive purge of
dissenting voices to his divisive regime since last week’s failed coup
attempt.
A growing number of observers are openly musing that the
authoritarian leader may staged the coup himself in order to facilitate a
crackdown on opponents.
Questions are being asked as to why coup
leaders did not take control of communications (including the internet),
did not target Erdogan directly, did not shoot down his plane when they
had the opportunity and instead of urging their supporters to take the
streets, told them to go home, leaving the streets in control of
government supporters.
The government also appeared to have well-prepared lists of people it wished to dismiss or imprison.
Observers around the world have also questioned why the coup was so ineptly managed as to appear doomed to failure.
Author of seven books on Turkey, Cengiz Candar, has described the coup as amateurish, bizarre and unprofessional.
“As
a veteran observer of military coups and coup attempts in Turkey, I
have never seen any with this magnitude of such inexplicable
sloppiness,” Candar said. Thousands of Mr Erdogan’s supporters took to the streets after the failed coup. Photo: AAPAt the very least, the authoritarian Erdogan has taken full advantage of the situation.
More
than 50,000 people have now been either arrested or sacked from their
government posts, including every university dean in the country along
with almost 20,000 teachers.
Almost 3000 judges have been suspended, 9000 police sacked and 6000 military personnel arrested or dismissed.
The
latest purge of anyone opposed to President Erdogan has come after
three years of repression of free speech and is seen as a move to take
Turkey back to its Islamist past and to throw off the influences of
Westernisation and secular forms of government.
This week,
thousands of Erdogan’s followers chanted “Allahu Akhbar”, or God is
great, in the streets, the same phrase used by jihadists during their
massacres.
Exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen, who has been resident in
the US since a failed coup in 1999, is being blamed by Erdogan for
being behind the coup, claims the elderly Gulen denies. Some 6000 military personal have been arrested or dismissed. Photo: Getty“There is a possibility that it could be a staged coup,” Gulen said in a rare interview with The Guardian
newspaper. “It appears that they have no tolerance for any movement,
any group, any organisation that is not under their total control.”
World
leaders have urged Turkey to show restraint and respect for human
rights in the wake of the attempted coup, which left at least 265 dead
and 1400 wounded, but appeared disorganised and leaderless.
‘Erdogan is very authoritarian’
Dr Murat Yurtbilir, from the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies at the Australian National University in Canberra, told The New Daily he believed that while the Turkish government did not plan the coup, it knew about it several days beforehand.
That
forewarning explains the prepared lists of people to be targeted or
arrested, including those concerned about the growing Islamisation of
the Turkish Army.
“Now he is
conducting a witch hunt and is using every political opportunity for his
purposes. The coup has been fortunate for him.” Dr Murat Yurtbilir from the ANU's Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies
“Erdogan
is very authoritarian, very Islamist,” Dr Yurtbilir said. “Now he is
conducting a witch hunt and is using every political opportunity for his
purposes. The coup has been fortunate for him.”
Dr Yurtbilir said
while President Erdogan did not publicly say he supported the
introduction of Islamic Shariah Law, but he constantly used Islam as a
political tool.
“He uses Islamic discourse in all his policies,” he said. “He is aiming to create a more conservative, Islamic society.”
In
the murky world of Middle Eastern politics, President Erdogan and his
family have been accused of profiting from oil and weapons trade with
Islamic State. Turkish Parliament was bombed during the failed coup. Photo: AAPTerror expert Professor Greg Barton told The New Daily that President Erdogan had described the attempted coup as a “Gift from God” which would enable him to cleanse the military.
“The
total picture looks like a very half-baked coup, either that or they
were not serious,” he said. “Although we cannot prove that it was
organised by Erdogan, it does not stand up to plausibility to say it was
masterminded by his political opponent Gulen, a 75-year-old asthmatic
living in Pennsylvania.”
Professor Barton said those being
targeted for imprisonment or dismissal went well beyond those who could
have been directly involved in a coup, including the university deans,
8,777 Interior Ministry staff and even 257 people from the Prime
Minister’s office.
“We have had three years of autocratic
authoritarianism, how is it possible all these 50,000 who have been
imprisoned or sacked were still in power?” Professor Barton said.
“The
attempted coup is a pretext. Half the country now support the
president, the other half have been cowed into silence. Erdogan sees
himself as doing the work of God by making Turkey more Islamic.”
As the Nice attack may prove, the French embody everything the terror group loathes.
France is regularly singled out by IS.
France is a prime target for Islamic State and its affiliates.
It is seen as the antithesis of a good Islamic society, a centre of
licentiousness, pleasure seeking, prostitution and sexual perversity, a
state that defies the will of Allah and celebrates secular philosophies.
A central feature of French culture has been a disdain for organised
religion.
There are unconfirmed reports IS has claimed credit for the Nice
attacks that killed more than 80 people on Friday, which brings this
hatred back into sharp focus.
More than 10,000 French soldiers are fighting in conflicts against Muslim fundamentalists.
“The French must die by the thousands,” Islamic State propaganda has previously declared.
The country has a large and aggrieved Muslim population numbering
more than six million. Historically it has treated much of Muslim North
Africa as its own backyard, colonising Algeria in 1830 and taking
control of Lebanon and Syria after World War One.
The moment police in Nice, France fired into the cab of the truck.
The France of today is extremely vulnerable to suicide attacks, with French authorities acknowledging they are overwhelmed.
Dr Tobias Feakin, national security director at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, told The New Daily
the fact that France was one of the main countries fighting jihadists
in Northern and Western Africa, Iraq and Syia made it a target.
“France has a very, very large Muslim community which feels that policy is being made against Muslims,” Dr Feakin said.
“There is anger over banning the wearing of the burqa. There is no
doubting that there are serious tensions between Muslim population in
France and the broader society.
“It is also far easier than Australia to obtain explosives or high
calibre machine guns. There has been a flow of weaponry from Libya and
the Balkans flowing into Europe and into France.”
Mr Feakin said the Islamic State did not need to secret themselves
amongst the refugees flooding into Europe. Many were born in France and
had French passports.
The French burqa ban has prompted protests in the Middle East. Photo: Getty
“The combination of the government policy of trying to take the fight
to Islamists and extremist groups, a large minority who are feeling
disillusioned with the French state, the ability to procure arms and
access to the ideology of ISIS and other associated groups has led to
the targeting of France, and we have seen this repeatedly.”
Terror expert Dr Clarke Jones, a research fellow at the Australian
National University, said the French attack, if proven to be linked to
IS, could be a sign of desperation.
“You have a weakening of the Islamic State and a call to their
followers to grab anything they could to attack the unbelievers,” Dr
Jones said.
“This is another example of those who support the ideology doing
something. You have a fairly large aggrieved Muslim population with all
sorts of perceived inequalities within the population.
“It is the demographics within France that creates the potential for
more of these sorts of attacks. As tragic as this is, I don’t think Nice
is the last attack we will see.
“You have to look at the social situation of marginalised small
populations. There is certainly a situation of inequality. You have a
Muslim population of 60 per cent plus within the prison system and that
reflects how Muslims are seen in the society and the perceived bias in
the criminal justice system.”
The Iraqi army is driving back Islamic State. Its members could be desperate to distract the world from its heavy losses. Photo: Getty
News emerged this week that a number of inmates were bashed at the
Goulburn’s maximum security prison for refusing to convert to Islam. The
prison complex now has its own Middle Eastern prison yard. Other
Australian jails are struggling with similar issues.
“It doesn’t matter how much security, when you have a population
rusting away on the inside, unless you address those grievances there
will be a lot more to come.”
Terror expert Professor Greg Barton at Deakin University told The New Daily more than 2,000 French Muslims had gone to fight in Syria and Iraq and were returning with instructions to carry out attacks.
“The numbers are such that authorities have difficulty dealing with them,” Prof Barton said.
“These are mostly young French citizens who can quite easily come and
go on their own legitimate travel documents. The French authorities
have thousands they have to pay attention to and it is not possible to
track all of them at once.
“I defend the decision that I took. I don’t resile from it. I don’t believe it was the wrong decision.”
"There was no lie," former PM says. Photo: AAP
Former Australian prime minister John Howard, who took the nation to war in Iraq in 2003, has refused to admit to any mistakes despite the criticisms of a new UK report into the invasion.
The Chilcot report, delivered on Wednesday, slammed the decision of Britain to go to war in Iraq and ignited controversy in Australia over the nation’s past and present involvement in the quagmire of the Middle East.
“Do I apologise for the core decision? I defend the decision that I took. I don’t resile from it. I don’t believe it was the wrong decision,” Mr Howard told reporters on Thursday.
Sir John Chilcot delivered a summary of the report on Wednesday. Photo: AAP
The UK report, headed by retired public servant Sir John Chilcot, found the invasion was based on “flawed” intelligence; that the British involvement was executed with “wholly inadequate” planning; that the UK government’s process of determining its legality was “far from satisfactory”; and that UK troops were sent in before all peaceful options had been exhausted.
In response, independent Australian politician Andrew Wilkie, a former intelligence analyst, called on Mr Howard, former British prime minister Tony Blair, and former US president George W Bush to face war crime charges.
“John Howard took Australia to war on the basis of a lie and stands accused of war crimes,” Mr Wilkie told reporters.
“That he has never been held to account, and that his foreign minister Alexander Downer is now Australian High Commissioner to London, is quite simply outrageous,” he said.
“Moreover, the Iraq debacle turbocharged al Qaida and created the circumstances for the eventual emergence of Islamic State. In other words the terrorist danger confronting Australians to this very day is a result of Australia’s involvement in Iraq.”
Mr Howard refuted the claims: “There were errors in intelligence, but there was no lie.”
The Chilcot report took seven years to complete and has 12 volumes. Photo: AAP
Mr Wilkie is not the only analyst to argue that the chaos that ensued following the Iraq invasion in 2003 led directly to the birth of Islamic State and to hundreds of thousands of military and civilian deaths.
Former Defence secretary Paul Barratt told The New Daily that Mr Howard should stop blaming the intelligence community for his own poor decision making.
“He took Australia to war on false pretences, that he either knew or should have known,” Mr Barratt said.
“The remarkable thing about it was just how little a role intelligence played in the decision to go to war. It was completely politically driven,” he said.
“It was clearly the wrong decision because it was a disaster for all concerned. The intelligence community was warning that if they were going to do it they should be prepared for a messy aftermath. The current mess is direct result.”
Former diplomat Richard Broinowski, president of the Australian Institute of International Affairs, agreed that Mr Howard had tried to “spread the blame”.
“Howard, like Blair, has sought to spread the blame to others and refuses to apologise for Iraq,” Mr Broinowski toldThe New Daily.
Former UK prime minister Tony Blair also defended his actions. Photo: AAP
“This means that unlike Britain, we have not even begun to identify the lessons to learn from the war. Unless we investigate our own record in Iraq, and change our practice, a future prime minister could commit Australia to war just as fraudulently and easily as Howard and Blair did in 2003.”
Like Howard, Mr Blair also defended his actions after the report’s release saying: “I believe we made the right decision and the world is better and safer.”
According to Defence Department figures, Australia has dropped a total of 1,149 bombs on Iraq and 38 bombs on Syria since former prime minister Tony Abbott took the country back into the Middle East conflict in 2014.
Thailand: What No One Tells You About the Land of Smiles
Book Review
Thailand is one of the world’s most popular travel destinations, and within the Asia Pacific, it often tops the list in terms of international tourist arrivals. But is it also one of the world’s deadliest destinations as an author claims?
Dramatic karst formation in the waters off the coast of Krabi in Southern Thailand. Photo Credit: Kallerna. .
According to John Stapleton in Thailand: Deadly Destination, the Land of Smiles is one of the world’s most dangerous travel destinations. So why do travelers keeps arriving in ever increasing numbers?
Whether it’s a devastating tsunami or demonstrators closing down the airport or bombs going off across the Nation’s capital, Thailand has an amazing ability to weather the storm.
There have been nearly 20 attempted military coups since the absolute monarchy was ended in 1932, averaging one every 4 and one-half years, meaning they take place almost as often as presidential elections are held in the United States.
And yet, Thailand remains one of the most popular – if not THE most popular – travel destinations in Southeast Asia.
Readers of Travel + Leisure have consistently rated Bangkok as one of the world’s 10 best cities, and it has often topped the list as THE best city in the world.
I’ve always thought that surveys like this tell you as much about readers of the magazine as they does about the city.
Temple of the Dawn is one of the many temples, palaces, and shrines that overlook the Chrao Phraya River in Bangkok, Thailand. Photo Credit: D. Ramey.
Bangkok does have a spectacular collection of palaces and temples and shrines along the banks of the Chao Phraya River. But overall, the city is pretty nondescript.
Bangkok’s skyline doesn’t hold a candle to the skylines of New York or Hong Kong. Its physical setting is nothing compared to the topographies of Rio de Janeiro or of Sydney.
In terms of architecture, what architecture? Would anyone seriously think that Bangkok could compete with Paris or Vienna or any of the other great cities of Europe?
What Thailand does offer is excellent value. It has fabulous resorts, a world-class cuisine, beautiful beaches, wonderful shopping malls, and sybaritic spas.
And everything does seem to cost a bit less there than anywhere else – except for wine.
Deadly Destination for Tourists?
According to John Stapleton in the controversial book “Thailand: Deadly Destination”, however, Thailand is also one of the world’s most dangerous destinations for tourists.
“While many foreigners leave the country happy, there are equally thousands of travellers from Europe, America, Australia, India and the Middle East, both short-time tourists and long-term residents, leaving the country impoverished, distressed, frightened and unlikely to ever return,” John writes, referring to Thailand as the “crime capital of Asia”.
It’s quite an indictment of the country that likes to think of itself as “The Land of Smiles”.
John cites murders, muggings, rapes, knifings, and extortion as relatively frequent occurrences when compared to other popular travel destinations.
He says far more Brits visiting Thailand die each year than Brits visiting Spain even though the number of Brits visiting Spain far exceeds the number visiting Thailand.
Mysterious Accidents
Paragliding at Promthep Cape on the Southern Thai island of Phuket. Photo Credit: Suwat Hannarong.
John details the many questionable suicides, the mysterious accidents, and the bodies that wash up on shore, suggesting that sloppy police work covers up what should be considered “foul play”.
And then there are the numerous scams, such as the defective jet skis that tourists rent.
When they return them, they are accused of damaging them and forced to pay for damages. If they refuse to pay, they get beaten up.
John even claims that passports, identification cards, driver’s licenses, college degrees, and other “official documents” can be forged within walking distance of a police station.
Foreign Gangsters
Because of the country’s porous borders, foreign gangsters have virtual carte blanche to operate in the country, John maintains.
He cities drug trafficking, people trafficking, credit card scams, child prostitution, the list goes on.
The list is so insidious, in fact, that you can’t help but wonder if John doesn’t have an axe to grind. Are the Thais really as racist as he maintains?
Do they really despise foreigners with such a vengeance? Surely some of them do, but do all of them harbour such deep feelings of contempt about the tourists that provide the country with one of its most important sources of revenue?
John admits that many of the foreigners that suffer ill fortune in Thailand have only themselves to blame.
As he repeatedly mentions, many foreign tourists seem to check their brains at the airport when they arrive in the Land of Smiles.
Risky Behaviour
The fact is, many foreign travelers engage in risky behavior that they would never think of doing in their own countries.
Are they lulled into a sense of false security by the easy going nature of the Thai people? And the sunshine, surf, and palm trees can have a hypnotic effect. Does it inhibit common sense?
And yet, anecdotal evidence seems to suggest that John might have a point. A friend of a friend went to Thailand and didn’t return. He died in a paragliding accident over the azure waters of Pattaya Bay.
A friend of another friend had a motorcycling accident in Phuket and was paralyzed from the neck down. He will spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair.
Just a couple of weeks ago, an actual friend – not the friend of a friend – had to cut her trip to Bangkok short because she suffered a lost front tooth and had to return home for urgent dental work.
I’m not sure how it happened. I’m still awaiting the details.
Malfunctioning Brake
I myself went on a mountain biking excursion organized by a resort in Phuket, one of the best places to visit in Thailand. Because of a malfunctioning brake, I was catapulted head over heels unto the pavement. I was in physical therapy for the better part of a year.
If truth be told, I’ve had other accidents while traveling in Asia – most of them on hotel properties.
I suffered mishaps within the confines of luxurious resorts in Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam. And I threw my back out on a bus trip during a press trip in Sri Lanka.
While these mishaps were relatively minor, they were all painful - especially the experience in Sri Lanka, and most of them required medical attention. My experience in Vietnam didn't require a trip to the hospital. But it did leave me limping for six months.
And in each of these cases, they seemed to be the result of a somewhat cavalier attitude toward the safety and/or comfort of travelers.
I’ve sometimes wondered if resort hotels in Southeast Asia were accidents waiting to happen.
Aesthetics Over Safety
Trivial lawsuits in the West are often mocked. But you know what? Sometimes that’s what’s necessary to make service providers (and the architects they hire to design their properties) to take safety seriously.
That breathtakingly beautiful water treatment at the foot of the staircase … what if someone with poor eyesight – or a bit too much to drink or lost in conversation – doesn’t notice it because the architect that designed it didn’t think it was necessary to install a rail or to provide adequate lighting because it would ruin the “aesthetic effect”?
Or the staircase that doesn’t have a banister? Or the unexpected step in the path that hasn’t been properly lit after dark? Or the sunken spot in the middle of the floor in a hotel room? Or the gaping holes in the sidewalk without warning (in this case, Indonesia is the worst offender) …
I’ve also become sick while staying at hotels several times in China. Was I going to get sick anyway, or was it something in the room that made me ill? Are hotel rooms properly disinfected between guests?
And I got a serious case of food poisoning in the canteen of a monastery in Macau. Sometimes it makes you think you should just stay home.
Modern boulevards crisscross the Thai capital. Photo Credit: Accidental Travel Writer.
Getting back to Thailand, the country’s tourism industry does seem to be going from strength to strength.
According to the first MasterCard’s Asia Pacific Destinations Index 2015, three cities in Thailand made the top 10 list of the travel destinations in the region with the most overseas travelers staying at least one night.
In terms of where to go in Thailand, three tourist spots top the list: Bangkok, Phuket, and Pattaya.
Bangkok came in first place, with 21.9 million international overnight visitors, representing a 28.6% increase over the previous year.
Phuket came in fifth place in the Asia Pacific Destinations Index, with 9.3 million international overnight visitors, up 15.5% over the year before.
Pattaya came in eighth place, with 8.1 million international overnight visitors, a 10% increase.
Bangkok also topped the list for the most total nights spent by international tourists in the city. And they also spent the most money, a whopping US$15.2 billion.
Advice for Travelers
Signs on the streets of Bangkok warn of "snatch thieves". Photo Credit: Accidental Travel Writer.
According to the United States Department of State, Bureau of Diplomatic Security, the most common crime in Thailand is non-confrontational in nature: street crimes such as pick-pocketing, purse-snatching, jewelry theft, tourism fraud, and credit card theft.
The department says that “the crime threat in Bangkok and other Thailand tourist spots remains lower than that in many U.S. cities …”
The department urges caution when walking in crowded markets, tourist sites, and bus and train stations.
“Across Thailand, U.S. citizens have been robbed of their valuables and other possessions after soliciting the services of commercial sex workers,” the department’s website says.
“Thieves also victimize travelers on long-distance bus routes.”
Crimes happen everywhere, and so do accidents. I have been a crime victim in other places, and I have had accidents other places.
Is Thailand really one of the world's deadliest travel destinations? Read the book and decide for yourself if John's thesis is sound. Whether you agree with him or not, the book makes fascinating reading!
Have you traveled in Thailand? What do you think about tourism safety in Thailand?
Please post your comment in the Comment Box below or on Facebook at the following link: Accidental Travel Writer on Facebook. And don't forget to LIKE us while you're there!
Issue still alive in other spots:
Referenced in the comments section here:
http://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2016/04/sickening-video-british-tourists-viciously-assaulted-in-thailand-because-they-were-farangs-westerner.html
seeker of truth said...
From a 2014 UK Daily Mail article -
A new book has branded Thailand one of the world’s most dangerous tourist destinations.
Australian author John Stapleton suggests that widespread police corruption, violence and crime are all blighting a country once commonly referred to as the ‘Land of Smiles’.
In his book Thailand: Deadly Destination, Mr Stapleton attempts to expose the reputation of Thailand as a welcoming country, claiming a boom in tourism since the 1960s has created a hatred of foreigners and a ‘murderous indifference’ to the millions of tourists who flock to the country’s white-sand beaches, picturesque countryside and thriving nightlife each year.
He also says that the death rate among tourists, which he claims often goes unrecorded, is ‘the worst scandal in the annals of modern tourism’.
‘Thailand’s carefully manufactured reputation for hospitality, as a land of palm trees and sun-drenched beaches, happy-hour bars, world class hotels and welcoming people, as paradise on Earth, is very different to the reality many tourists encounter,’ Mr Stapleton says in the book, which is being published next week.
‘The rapid growth in Thai tourism has been a triumph of advertising and image creation; building the perception, firmly entrenched in the West, that Thais embrace strangers.
‘In reality, the relations between ethnic Thais and foreigners are often difficult; and there has been growing friction and disengagement, a drift from curiosity to contempt, as visitor numbers have increased.
While many foreigners leave the country happy, there are equally thousands of travellers from Europe, America, Australia, India and the Middle East, both short-time tourists and long-term residents, leaving the country impoverished, distressed, frightened and unlikely to ever return.
‘If, with the murder or accidental deaths of tourists a common event, they leave at all.
‘Life in Thailand is cheap. And the deaths of foreigners often go unlamented; even unrecorded. Tourists are still given few warnings of the reality of the situation they are entering.’
Mr Stapleton previously worked as a news reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald from 1986 to 1994 and for The Australian between 1994 to 2009.
He has been visiting Thailand since the 1970s before moving there in 2010.
After being repeatedly robbed and attacked, he began looking into news reports on the welfare of tourists, which he describes as ‘scandalous’, suggesting that the police have little interest in helping foreigners who report crimes.....
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-2833369/Thailand-one-dangerous-tourist-destinations-Earth-Ex-pat-investigation-lifts-lid-dark-Land-Smiles.html
Mr Stapleton might have been right on the money with his book "Thailand: Deadly Destination"
A big no no in these Asian tourist spots is to argue with the locals.
Reply Thursday, 28 April 2016 at 02:48 PM
, the Land of Smiles is one of the world’s most dangerous travel destinations. So why do travelers keeps arriving in ever increasing numbers?
