Coup attempt in Turkey

Not safe in the largest city of a NATO ally.

 

Ugh @KJIM, please let us know you're OK.

 

Checking in per message from Dyno Hadn't been back since I posted last and saw this.

JH, due respect, but you aren't in Turkey. You don't know what's here, and you know little, if anything, about State Department life, housing, etc. That's fine, your life took a different path, but since you don't work there and all and are are not in the country, you're not the best to speak about what it's like in the department or in Turkey. Reading a couple of articles doesn't make you an authority, either.

And yeah, it is my business if someone asks me about the whereabouts of an American citizen. That's kind of the point of the State department. I had the duty phone today for exactly that reason. So yeah, my job, too. And if someone PMs me for help, I'm willing to do it.

It's not that I can't handle criticism, it's just that the criticizer has no idea of how it works here and it's not worth debating it. You believe you're right no matter what the person in the country said. Whatever; an anonymous message board guy's ego is not worth my time.

Anyway, Dyno, the cable just went out on the new situation so I can finally comment. (JH, because you're concerned about my professionalism, I'll mention here that my co-worker has been pestering me to send it to her, I refused to email it to her personal account because even though it's unclassified I'm not comfortable doing it.)

This is unrelated to the coup attempt but is apparently a very real threat, real enough to send all family members home. I spent eight hours in the office today, working to get people out. Lots of tears. We have a lot of young couples with little kids, some of whom came in today in their Halloween costumes. We'd been told on Friday that this would likely happen. It was a half day -- it's a Turkish holiday this weekend -- and, even though the meeting ran late, everyone hung around, pretty much in shock. It's really hard to believe it's at this level right now.

Whatever it was seems to have escalated last week, because we started getting security messages and having meetings last Saturday. I can see the consulate from home and have in the past walked to work (15 mins - uphill both ways), but we've been strongly warned about the kidnap possibilities/attacks/etc. The advice is to carpool -- lucky for me the other three people in this complex all drive to work -- and vary routes, don't go anywhere alone, don't go to places frequented by Westerners, vigilance always, etc. (Both the Marine Ball and Bosporus marathon/race are coming up in a couple weeks.)

I assume today's press release reads like the cable and Tuesday's updated travel advisory, and that's what was in there. American hotels have been targeted, too. The stuff that's coming down to us is that it's against "Westerners and Americans and their families." It seems ISIS-ish, and from what the Gen. (?) Townsend said earlier this week in the press, it sounds like ISIS might be planning some bad stuff outside of Rakka to divert attention and forces from its bad guys there.

And this is aimed at non-Turks. One of my good friends from Guangzhou is from here, and I asked about her family. She was shocked when I mentioned the updated travel warning. It's aimed at foreigners, not locals. There are, according to the security guy, 50k Americans living in our consular district. We're the biggest group. God knows I've talked to a bunch of them on the duty phone.

The upside is, the Turkish police have been awesome, both in getting bad guys off the street and keeping our security informed. We're reporting weird stuff that happens to us at or near our homes to our security guys, who are reporting it to the TP and they are acting on it. (By this I mean seeing strange cars in housing complexes, people taking pictures of school bus stops and receiving crank calls to homes on internal apartment lines - that one was mine.)

I am not in security, but the feeling I get is it'll pass sooner than later. Maybe this is overly optimistic, but I feel like the 100 people we ticketed today will be back by Thanksgiving. I really hope so. But right now, it is very hard. Today was emotionally draining. The next couple of weeks are going to be really rough.

Thanks for asking, Dyno.

 

Hang in there, KJIM, and be safe.

 

Thanks for the update, KJIM, and stay safe.

BTW, a colleague "won" a two week stay in Bodrum about five years ago, but because of her job, she couldn't immediately do it. And she invited me and my gf to come along.

All three of us think we might have to wait another 10'or 20 years before visiting, in order to avoid, you know, beheading. I keep having visions of scimitars.

Stay safe! Thanks for the update!

 

Glad you're OK - thanks for letting us know. Stay safe. I hope things calm down quickly.

 

Gulen might turn out to be one of the biggest losers of Tuesday's election:

 

We will be the friend of many a tyrant for the next four years. Plus, I wonder if Trump's election will cause Britain to delay/pull the plug on Brexit. If they're worried about US security guarantees in Europe, and they are, they'll need other close friends.

 

He's been living in the Poconos for some years, and presumably is under government surveillance, if only for his own protection. So far, the feds haven't moved on him. Have to assume they would if they had any evidence, even just enough for suspicion.

 

Worth reading the New Yorker article YF linked above.

 

Today's news ... car bomb after soccer game in Besiktas injures 20, according to Mirror. BBC also has a breaking story now.

Kjim not among them; was sleeping when security notice went off. Sheltering in place again but hopefully we'll get all clear by morning.

Was out and about with a colleague today and discussing how we thought it was looking like we'd go off our departure status and bring family members home next month. Hope this doesn't set back that decision.