Summary execution to backfire on Turkish President: Analyst

Press TV has interviewed William Jones, with the Executive Intelligence Review from Leesburg, about the West’s response to possible summary execution of alleged coup plotters in Turkey.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Turkey’s Western allies including the US and the EU say that they’re deeply concerned with Erdogan’s crackdown thus far following the failed coup, and now the state of emergency has just added to the powers behind that crackdown, your thoughts.

Jones: Well, it’s not unusual that there would be a state of emergency after what had happened. It seems however that Erdogan is not going to go for the bloody shirt and introduce kind of summary executions in the light, but obviously this was an extensive operation. And there is a lot of words coming out of Europe and the United States with regard to that but there’s a lot of things that are very funny about this.

First of all that Erdogan had been making a shift with regard to a rapprochement with Russia, which of course wasn’t seen with very glad eyes from the West and also with regard to the parties in the region including accepting the fact that the Syrian army represents some kind of force against the terrorists. So, he had made almost 180-degree shift before this coup happened.

The question is were people concerned about this and that’s the reason that has occurred. It’s still all very unclear at this point, but I think it’s logical that Erdogan is taking measures to deal with this. But if he goes further in terms of trying to institute some kind of summary execution on masses of people, I think it’s going to turn against him.

Press TV: If the Erdogan’s administration continues down this path of wiping out all opposition in the name of cleaning up traitors and coup plotters, what will the country’s future look like and how will this decision hurt Ankara’s future standing with Europe and possibly the US?

Jones: Well, it certainly won’t be good at any rate and I assume maybe Erdogan has enough sense to understand that if he creates more dissents within this country, it’s going to be a greater period of chaos. I would think that would be a move towards order, but what you have had happening of course was these terrorist operations in which so-called Russians were involved; those were obviously Chechens. And then you had this shift with Russia which of course was not seen by some people as being a very good move.

Part of the criticism you’re getting from Europe and from NATO at this point is that they’re trying to put Putin under the gun. And Erdogan had made a move to have a rapprochement with them. So, they’re not happy with him in that respect either. I think however if he tries to crack down extensively without also giving out some kind of olive branch to people who are concerned, who were not involved in this coup but may be concerned with some of his policies, it’s going to be a rough road ahead.

But the measures that he’s taken at this point seemed to be a little more moderate than what he said at the beginning and I haven’t seen any summary executions or things like that that people have been worried about in the West.