Pray For Turkey.

Pray for the World.

In the 2001 the former Mayor of Istanbul Recep Tayyip Erdogan formed the Justice & Development Party (AKP) as a vehicle to sweep him to power in Turkey. In November 2002 the AKP won a landslide victory in the General Election.

The problem was that as Mayor of Istanbul in 1997 Erdogan attended a rally for the radical Islamist Welfare Party which at the time he was a member of. At that rally Erdogan called on party supporters to;  

"Turn the Mosques into their barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and the faithful our soldiers."

Rather unsurprisingly this call for Muslims to take up arms against the Turkish state was deemed an incitement both to violence and to religious and racial hatred.

As a result Erdogan was jailed for 10 months, banned from ever again holding political office and the Welfare Party was disbanded as a threat to national security.

Erdogan's conviction and ban from ever again holding public office obviously prevented him from taking up the office of Prime Minister in 2002.

With Hillary Clinton having been found to have committed 110 offences of espionage against the US and the Obama administration refusing to prosecute it is frightening how similar current US politics are to Turkish politics back in 2002.

If the Obama administration does not reverse its decision and prosecute Hillary Clinton or she fails to unilaterally withdraw from the 2016 President election Turkey could well be the type of country America becomes in the future.

Obviously Erdogan wasn't going to let a little something like the law of the land prevent him from seizing power. So in 2002 the AKP's co-founder Abdullah Gul simply became Turkey's Prime Minister in Erdogan's place.

Gul's sole purpose as Prime Minister was to annul the ban of Erdogan holding political office. This task was rapidly completed allowing Erdogan to become Prime Minister in March 2003.

Having seized power Erdogan almost immediately set about making sure that Turkey's law, Courts and other apparatus of a democratic state could never challenge his authority ever again.

Within months of taking up the office of Prime Minister Erdogan declared that there was secretive organisation called "Ergenekon" that was plotting to overthrow his government on behalf of the Global Zionist Conspiracy.

Stories of the Ergenekon group continued for the next 10 years resulting in 254 senior military and civil service officials being convicted to life imprisonment for treason against Erdogan. It almost goes without saying that those 254 vacancies were immediately filled with members of the AKP.

In 2015 the Ergenekon cases were reopened after independent forensic examinations revealed that many of the documents entered into evidence in the case were forgeries.

This merely prompted Erdogan to declare the conspiracy to be much wider than previously thought accusing the journalists who'd had the documents tested of being part of the "Gulen Movement."

Existing really only in Erdogan's brain the Gulen Movement is supposedly a vast CIA conspiracy against him that is fronted by Fethullah Gulen an Islamist preacher based in Pennsylvania. Whenever anyone disagrees with Erdogan they are immediately dismissed as Gulenists.

Following the revelation that much of the evidence had been forged the convictions in the Ergenekon case were annulled in April 2016. Obviously the wrongly imprisoned have not been allowed to return to their jobs which are now occupied by AKP members.

Just as the Ergenekon trials were reaching their climax in 2010 Erdogan suddenly uncovered another vast conspiracy against him. This time known as "Sledgehammer." On this occasion 365 senior military and civil service figures such as Judges were arrested and replaced by AKP members.

Again much of the evidence produced by Erdogan in the case was found to have been faked. Again Erdogan labelled those who proved the evidence to be fake to be members of the Gulenist conspiracy. After pointing out that the trials were in no way fair the Istanbul Bar Association itself was prosecuted for conspiring against Erdogan. All cases are currently being appealed.

The reason why Erdogan has been so desperate to remove any domestic oversight of his rule is quite clear. His policies should terrify any right thinking person.

In terms of foreign policy Erdogan is a neo-Ottoman.

That means he wants to re-establish the Ottoman Empire that stretched from Austria across the middle-east through Africa to Morocco. Erdogan wants to rule this Islamic Caliphate as Sultan with Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi - leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) - as its Caliph.

To this end Erdogan has aggressively supported Islamist terror groups in Tunisia, Libya, Palestine. In Egypt he attempted to install the Islamist puppet regime of Mohammed Morsi and has backed terror groups to wage a low intensity war against Egypt ever since Morsi was overthrown by the Egyptian people in 2013.

It almost goes without saying that Erdogan has been an energetic supporter of ISIL in both Syria and Iraq. As I've really spent the last two years detailing Erdogan's support for ISIL it would take me far too long to list every example of the support he has given to the group here.

However one that really sums up Erdogan's rule occurred in January 2014 when the Attorney General of Turkey's Adana province was tipped off that a convoy carrying illegal weapons to terror groups in Syria was passing through the province.

Obviously the Attorney General and the local police stopped the convoy, seized the weapons and arrested those involved.

This prompted the Erdogan regime to arrest the more than 50 people involved in stopping the convoy on charges of treason for interfering with a National Intelligence Organisation (MIT) delivery of weapons to extreme Islamist terror groups active in Syria.

This story was broken by the Cumhuriyet newspaper. Erdogan responded by accusing the newspaper and the journalists of being part of the Gulenist conspiracy and prosecuted them for treason.

Just in May the journalists - Can Dundar & Erdem Gul - were jailed for five years for publishing the story. As he was arriving at Court Dundar survived an assassination attempt when an AKP member opened fire on him.

In March 2016 Turkey's biggest selling newspaper Zaman made the mistake of criticising Erdogan for the way it was cracking down on journalists and the free press. This led to a Turkish Court - staffed by AKP members of course - to order the newspaper to be shut down and placed under government control.

On March 6th (6/3/16) Turkish police physically seized  Zaman's offices from its staff replacing them with AKP members. Funnily enough the new state run Zaman thinks that Erdogan is the greatest man to have ever lived and Turkey's one true saviour.

It is not just journalists writing about Erdogan's foreign adventures who have reason to be fearful. Erdogan's domestic policies are just as dangerous and just as unpleasant.

As part of Turkey's secular constitution the wearing of the Islamic hijab in areas of the public sector such Parliament, Courts and Schools is strictly forbidden. Rather than being Islamaphobic this was a rule introduced by Muslims.

Erdogan has long campaigned for this ban to be scrapped. His own wife has made a point of wearing the hijab at all times - even when carrying out official duties - and in 2008 Erdogan amended the constitution to exclude universities from the ban.

Erdogan's campaign for women to adhere to Islamic modesty standards has triggered a collapse in women's rights in Turkey with instances of rape, sexual assault, forced marriage and child marriage all skyrocketing.

You may remember how the French/Turkish movie "Mustang" was denied the 2016 Best Foreign Language Oscar as not to embarass US Vice President Joe Biden over his support for the Erdogan regime.

Just on June 5th (5/6/16) - in a speech to the Women's Democracy Association - Erdogan declared that women who choose to work rather than becoming wives and mothers are "deficient" and "inhuman."

Turkey's women are not alone in suffering at Erdogan's hands. The 2015 Gay Pride march in Istanbul was banned for being "un-Islamic." The marchers marched anyway so Erdogan's police attacked them.

Shortly after an AKP linked newspaper celebrated the recent Orlando terror attack as; "50 Perverted Homosexuals Killed" the same thing happened with the 2016 Gay Pride march. On this occasion even members of the German Parliament were arrested and assaulted by Erdogan's thuggish police force.

Even people who want to do something as simple as listen to music must live in fear in Erdogan's Turkey.

On June 18th (18/6/16) a small group of fans of the band Radiohead were listening to their new album in a record store in Istanbul. The AKP's street thugs attacked them with clubs and bottles threatening to burn them alive in the building for going against Islam by listening to music.

Fellow Istanbul residents rallied behind the victims of the attack calling for those responsible to be punished. Erdogan's police responded by attacking the demonstrators.

It almost goes without saying that this constant repression has seen Erdogan's popularity plummet.

In May of 2013 some 7 million people - roughly 1/10th of Turkey's entire population joined the Gezi Park/Taksim square protest calling for Erdogan to stand down.

Needless to say rather than heeding the will of the people Erdogan sent in the police to violently crush the protests killing 11 and injuring more than 8,000.

Erdogan then declared the protests to be not a sign of his own unpopularity but further work of the Zionist/Gulenist conspiracy against him.

As always the task of explaining the inner workings of Erdogan's mind to a rational audience is proving to be a hard one.

At around 16:40 on 16/7/16 (UK date) I'll be back to add more on what is likely to be a long night.

Edited at around 20:00 on 16/7/16 (UK date) to add;

In March of 2013 Erdogan's two terms as Prime Minister came to an end. However he refused to step down continuing to hold the office until August 2014 when he simply switched to the ceremonial non-executive role of President.

If anything this further damaged the popularity of both Erdogan and the AKP. They paid the price for this in the June 2015 General Election.

Here the AKP hoped to win the 330 seats needed to give them the 60% qualified majority needed to change the constitution to scrap term limits and make Erdogan an executive President. All without public approval. As it happened the AKP only succeeded in winning 258 seats - falling 17 seats short of a governing majority.

This really should have been the end of Erdogan and the AKP. It was simply a question of the other three main parties led by the Republican People's Party (CHP) forming a coalition and then repairing Turkey's fractured relationship with the international community including NATO.

However then US President Obama stepped in save Erdogan.

Following the July 20th (20/7/15) Suruc bombing against Turkey's Kurds Obama telephoned Erdogan and gave him permission to declare war on both Turkey's Kurdish population and the Kurds across the entire region. Including in Iraq & Syria where they are fighting ISIL - who carried out the Suruc bombing.

This of course immediately drove a wedge between the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and the People's Democratic Party (HDP) ending the possibility of an anti-AKP coalition.

It also allowed Erdogan to portray himself as the wartime leader wrapped in the national flag while introducing increasingly draconian controls on the media and political opponents under the guise of "fighting terror."

Buoyed by the wartime fervour Erdogan called a snap General Election in November 2015. On this occasion the AKP managed to scrape together just enough votes to secure 317 seats. Not enough to change the constitution but just enough for the AKP to rule alone.

This election took place against the backdrop of the government being at war against 20% of the Turkish population and journalists and publishers being dragged through the Courts on trumped up charges of espionage and treason.

As a result it was only the US that recognised Turkey's November 2015 General Election as free and fair. The Council of Europe monitoring mission described the election by saying;

"This campaign was unfair and characterised by too much violence and fear."

Citing specifically;

"Criminal investigations of journalists and media outlets for support of terrorism and defamation of the president, the blocking of websites … and the effective seizure of some prominent media outlets reduced voters’ access to a plurality of views and information."

Despite being the only developed nation to consider Turkey's November 2015 election as legitimate the US still refused to respect either its result or the Turkish constitution.

Rather than conducting business with the Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu - the recognised holder of democratic executive power - the US continued to deal only with Erdogan as if he still had legal authority in Turkish policy.

In May 2016 Erdogan decided that Davutoglu was getting to big for his boots and dismissed him in favour of Binali Yildirim. Erdogan had no lawful authority to make that decision.

Following the November 2015 electoral coup Erdogan seems to have become even more power crazed and out of control.

Reading the Turkish media it seems that over the past 8 months hundreds of opponents of the AKP and just random members of the public are being rounded up every week on vague charges of being part of the; "Parallel State"- by which I think Erdogan simply means; "The State."

Then of course there has been Erdogan's attempts to weaponise refugees from Syria to blackmail the European Union (EU) into handing over 15% of its budget and grant Turkish passport holders visa-free access to the trading bloc.

This of course has been linked to the November 13th (13/11/15) Paris Massacres and the March 22nd (22/3/16) Brussels attacks. Three days prior to the Brussels attacks Erdogan quite clearly and publicly said to an AKP rally; "Brussels will be [attacked] next."

So to all who do this sort of thing for a living it has been clear that the pressure was reaching a tipping point. Erdogan would soon be overthrown and Turkey would be returned to democracy and civil society.

I personally thought that the NATO intelligence agencies should have been working with the Turkish military alongside the MHP and the CHP to make sure this transition was a swift and smooth as possible. Failing that I thought they could at least pretend that they couldn't see what was going on and remember to act all surprised when it finally happened.

Therefore I find US President Obama's decision to once again step in to protect Erdogan on multiple occasions extremely hard to understand.

This began on June 27th (27/6/16) when well known CIA agent Rihanna released the much trailed single "Sledgehammer." This of course shares its name with what Erdogan had claimed was a giant conspiracy to overthrow him. However it was also extremely significant that it was Rihanna releasing this single.

Rihanna is currently on her first tour since the 2013 Diamonds World Tour. It was during the European leg of this tour that the Islamist puppet regime that Erdogan had helped install in Egypt was overthrown.

This was the result of 30% of the Egyptian population signing a petition calling for Morsi to stand down. This was followed by roughly 15-20% of Egypt's population taking to the streets in protest and staying there day and night until Morsi stood down.

Obviously in a democracy faced with that level of public opposition a President would either stand down or at the very least call a fresh election. However as with Erdogan Morsi is no democrat so he refused.

This forced the Egyptian military to take control of the situation an usher Morsi out of power. The Egyptians then held a constitutional referendum and a Parliamentary election to confirm that was indeed the will of the people.

However enraged by the loss of his puppet Erdogan and his supporters in the AKP continue to allege that this was some sort of a coup d'etat. Primarily to block further progress in Egypt's revolution.

Therefore Rihanna singing about Sledgehammer whilst on tour seemed to be a coded warning by the US to Erdogan and the AKP that a coup was coming and they had better be prepared to resist it.

Erdogan responded almost immediately with the staged terror attack on Istanbul's Ataturk airport on June 28th (28/6/16).

Key to the Sledgehammer plot was claims that loyalists to Mustafa Kemal Ataturk would stage a series of terror attacks across Istanbul and down a plane in order to spread chaos to justify the military taking control of the country.

Therefore domestically the purpose of the June 28th attack was to prepare AKP supporters to prepare to resist any moves against Erdogan by whipping them up into a frenzy over a potential coup plot.

Due to the similarities between Erdogan's rise to power and Turkish politics at the start of the century the news of July 5th (5/7/16) that Hillary Clinton is now prohibited from becoming US President raised in the temperature in Turkey even further.

However beyond deploying the Black Lives Matter street army in support of Hillary Clinton a faction within the US government took this as a further opportunity to warn Erdogan of his impending demise.

On July 9th (9/7/16) a video claiming to be on behalf of the "Anonymous" hacking group appeared online calling for a "Day of Rage" against police in 39 US cities last night (15/7/16).

As the name suggests Anonymous has no official membership structure instead being a loose umbrella term that anyone can use. People normally associated with Anonymous and Black Lives Matter seem to know nothing about this particular video. In fact I think only 30 people answered its call.

However the language of a "Day of Rage" is synonymous with the Muslim world and the so-called "Arab Spring." Particularly the Egyptian revolutions in 2011 and 2013. In fact it seems impossible for Muslim protesters to call a demonstration without referring to is as a; "Day of Rage."

As such this video and the police response it triggered in the US seemed a barely coded warning to the Turkish police who are staunchly loyal to Erdogan that the Turkish military would be making their move on Friday (15/7/16). The Turkish police had better be ready to resist.

One of the first things the Turkish military did in making their move last night was to take control of the state broadcaster and put out a message that Erdogan had been overthrown and that people were to remain in their homes overnight.

Almost immediately following this announcement the US news network CNN broadcast a bizarre interview with Erdogan conducted over Apple's Facetime. In this interview that was broadcast nationally CNN allowed Erdogan to call on his supporters to take to the streets to fight the military to restore him to power.

Apparently while all this was going on Erdogan telephoned a number of European leaders asking for their support. Nobody was prepared to take his calls.

However US President Obama took it upon himself to call Erdogan and then release a public statement announcing that the US would not back the Turkish military.

With the Turkish military not being prepared to open fire on the crowds of AKP supporters who flooded the streets they were overwhelmed and Erdogan was returned to power.

Already Erdogan is using this as an excuse to further hollow out democratic institutions. Some 150 Judges have already been arrested and a further 2,775 dismissed from their post. As with the Ergenekon and Sledgehammer accusations they have already been replaced by AKP members.

Most worrying though has been today's developments at USAF base Incrilk which is where the bulk of anti-ISIL operations are conducted from and is home to 50-90 US nuclear warheads. Erdogan has ordered this base to be shutdown and cut off power to it.

As such Erdogan appears to be holding anti-ISIL operations and part of the US nuclear arsenal hostage.

I know I'm in danger of over using this phrase of late but after yet another screw up of epic proportions surely Obama is under arrest.

Or at least being psychologically assessed to determine if he is medically fit to continue in post.

22:05 on 16/7/16 (UK date).