Q: are we not MENA? A: we are the rolling middle east, north africa and other geopolitical hot spots thread 2016!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/07/03/the-worst-alleged-isis-attack-in-days-is-the-one-the-world-probably-cares-least-about/?tid=pm_world_pop_b

Written before the Medina bombing I think. This is about the Baghdad ones.

Public anger in the Iraqi capital, as my colleague Loveday Morris reports, is not being directed at foreign conspirators or even — first and foremost — at the militants, but at a much-maligned government that is failing to keep the country safe.

"The street was full of life last night," one Karrada resident told The Washington Post, "and now the smell of death is all over the place."

been surprised/bummed that the Medina attack has been buried in the US press, I know it's not the first time terrorists have attacked one of the holy cities but still

Something I've been thinking about lately, how a lot of terrorism or suicide bombings and other mass violent acts are taking place or originate in places that had previously seen long stretches of relative stability at the expense of freedom or democracy. That is, lots of places where strong-arm dictators or clans with terrible rights records successfully (?) suppressed bloody factionalism. Iraq, Egypt, Syria, Libya, Afghanistan, Pakistan, etc. Just locked up (or killed) whomever they deemed troublemakers. Is it the sloppy nature of their so-called liberation that has more recently opened/reopened the flood gates, or simply the loosening of the lid?

Anyway,I doubt I expressed it well - rushing our the door - but can there be any solution to this kind of sort of pure, apolitical terrorism - that is, no clear, achievable goal - beside violent suppression, the way it used to be? How come a democracy like India, with a huge poverty problem and plenty of religious conflicts, generally avoids this kind of stuff? How about Iran, which fuels and embraces extremism but has somehow kept things (relatively) stable, and huge mass violent events minimal?

iirc from the Lawrence Wright book, an attack on Mecca was sort of a foundational moment for what became Al Qaeda

1000 Saddams

imperfect (as bissell stuff often is) but some interesting stuff and v. readable:
http://harpers.org/archive/2016/07/my-holy-land-vacation/?single=1`

xp Josh: Westerners often forget that our own transition from repressive states/lords and tribal/sectarian animosities to tolerant democracies took centuries of bloodshed, (hopefully) exhausting itself only in the 20th century. We still have pogroms at the fringes. That others would embrace our own End of History in scant generations, especially where it conflicts with tribal/pastoral traditions, was wildly ambitious.

President Obama will deploy 560 troops to Iraq to help retake Mosul, the largest city controlled by the Islamic State, Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter announced on Monday. It is the latest escalation of the United States’ role in the war here by Mr. Obama, who ran for office on a pledge to end America’s involvement in the conflict.

The additional troops will bring the official number of American service members deployed in Iraq to 4,647. Many will be based at an airfield about 40 miles south of Mosul that was seized by the Iraqis on Saturday.

...American commanders plan to use the base, Qayyarah West Airfield, as a staging area to provide logistical support to Iraqi forces as they move toward Mosul. Some of the troops specialize in infrastructure support like building bridges, which the Iraqis will need for the assault on Mosul because the Islamic State has destroyed many around the city. The Islamic State seized Mosul in June 2014.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/12/world/middleeast/us-iraq-mosul.html?&moduleDetail=section-news-1&action=click&contentCollection=Middle%20East®ion=Footer&module=MoreInSection&version=WhatsNext&contentID=WhatsNext&pgtype=article

Rumblings from analysts on Twitter that there might be a coup taking place in Istanbul. The army has closed the Bosphorus bridge in both directions and there are fighter jets flying over the city. Something's going on but nobody really knows what.

whoah

Tanks on the streets of Istanbul and Ankara according to some people watching Turkish TV. Still speculation at this point but pretty odd even under the current circumstances.

This is another case in which Twitter is actively unhelpful in working out what's going on. There are reports that journalists have been told they're locking down both cities in response to a potential terrorist attack and that the military police is disarming the civilian police. It's either a huge anti-terrorist mobilisation or a coup.

A coup is surely not very likely?

Not being reported on BBC or Sky yet.

lol, it's Turkey. How many do they need to have before it becomes likely?

i'm reading that it's a terrorist attack not a coup

https://twitter.com/AkyolinEnglish/status/754040782819061760

lol, it's Turkey. How many do they need to have before it becomes likely?

They haven't had one in a while!

i'm seeing on twitter reports of gunfire? who knows..

Cmon people, coup is highly unlikely. Surprised ppl are so willing to spread rumors like that.

Reading reports on Turkey going into lockdown due to terror threat.

Shots heard in Ankara xp

A coup is not impossible. The last one was in 1997, effectively, and the Turkish military has a clear dedication to remove governments that are considered to be violating the spirit of the Ataturk secularism policy. If a coup was unlikely, Erdogan wouldn't have spent the last six or seven years trying to replace most of the top military commanders in the country.

i think the question re a coup would be why now and not in 2013.

According to a pro Erdogan paper Gulenists are trying to occupy the army HQ https://twitter.com/sendika_org/status/754041560652779520

I could just walk down to any one of a dozen local shops, they're bound to be watching it on TV there.

... ask them to tell me what's going on.

One of the main Turkish papers is reporting a helicopter gunship has opened fire on something, though nobody knows what.

Gulenists get blamed for everything so take that with a pinch of salt.

Shi... Turkey's PM is calling it a coup, on NTV...

Xp that's why I added 'pro Erdogan paper' ShariVari

PM Yikdirim says the attempt doesn't amount a military coup but that there are some groups in military "behaving irresponsibly"

Oh, Sky has it.

... BBC lagging behind as usual.

"Action being taken without chain of command"

The UN internal messaging is that the Air Force and Military Police are attempting a coup.

State broadcaster TNT taken over by military. Dang.

TRT, soz

crazy

If it actually is the Gulenists this time, we'll never hear the end of it...

Still nothing on BBC, they are useless. Sky on the story.

Television absolutely useless. Beeb not live yet, CNN immediately talking about "how this affects US foreign policy"...

Ataturk Airport supposedly under control of army faction.

Erdogan is not in Turkey btw, but in Mongolia on some business trip.

what will putin be making of this?

Breaking: Armed forces just broadcasted they have "taken control of the country"

Holy fucking shit.

Statement by military read out on Turkish tv: to again obtain constitutional democratic hum rights we are officially managing the country."

yay another night of not going to bed and watching the news

I wonder if Boris regretting accepting that Foreign Secretary role.

lol

The military announcement was apparently unsigned, which some are taking to mean it's a coup of lower-ranking officers.

Erdogan has been preparing for this for years and i'd expect him to still have some of the military and the majority of the security forces onside. He also has a huge chunk of the country backing him. This is not a good combination.

AKP mayors and senior MPs are calling people out on to the streets.

out *on* to the streets? as in the opposite of curfew?