Western Massachusetts Turkish community reacts to Attempted Military Coup
WEST SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) – An attempt by members of the Turkish military to overthrow their government left at least 161 people dead Saturday morning. Gunfire and explosions rocked Turkey’s capital of Ankara and the main city of Istanbul Friday night into Saturday morning. A faction of the Turkish military launched the coup using helicopters and tanks. At 11:25 p.m. local time, the Turkish military issued a statement saying they had taken control of the country and imposed martial law. Turkey’s president, Recep Erdogan had been on vacation when the coup was launched. He called upon citizens to go to the streets to fight for democracy.
US-Turkish tensions have grown after government forces put down an attempted coup on Friday night. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused exiled Turkish businessman and cleric Fethullah Gulen of orchestrating the violence and is demanding that the US extradite him. Gulen, who lives in Pennsylvania, denied any involvement and condemned the coup attempt. 
By Brandon Turbeville - mintpressnews.com - Protesters hold a giant Turkish flag as they gather in Taksim Square in Istanbul, Monday, July 18, 2016. Turkey's Interior Ministry has fired nearly 9,000 police officers, bureaucrats and others and detained thousands of suspected plotters following a foiled coup against the government, Turkey's state-run news agency reported Monday. Protesters hold a giant Turkish flag as they gather in Taksim Square in Istanbul, Monday, July 18, 2016. Turkey’s Interior Ministry has fired nearly 9,000 police officers, bureaucrats and others and detained thousands of suspected plotters following a foiled coup against the government, Turkey’s state-run news agency reported Monday. 
Had Turkey’s military succeeded in toppling President Recep Tayyip Erdogan last Friday, by seizing and consolidating power, and the public acquiesced, how would the U.S. have reacted? Counterfactuals are, of course, impossible to game out. But that thought experiment shows the difficulty the U.S. might have faced trying to reconcile its interest in a stable Turkey with its commitment to a democratic one. The problem of reconciling U.S. values and interests isn’t limited to Turkey, though those issues might be at the fore this week; this pertains to several partners in the Middle East. 
Turkey's bloody coup attempt plotted by the Fetullah Terrorist Organization is not seen as a threat to democracy, according to an article written by American writer Steven Cook. The article published on Thursday in U.S.-based magazine The Atlantic, which is headlined "How Erdogan Made Turkey Authoritarian Again", overlooks the people's struggle to protect the country's democracy, rushing to the streets to stop the illegal coup attempt, but rather says it "would not have brought an end to Turkey’s democracy". The article claimed that only Turkey's ruling party's progress would have been lost, ignoring the fact that coup plotters bombed the Turkish parliament, a clear intention to harm the democratic functioning of the country. 
Elektrik Elektronik ve Hizmet İhracatçıları Birliği (TET) desteğiyle oluşturulan yazılım sektörü ticaret heyeti, ABD'ye gerçekleştirdiği ziyaret kapsamında 150 milyon dolarlık iş bağlantısı kurdu. Washingon, DC'deki ikili görüşmeleri New York merkezli TOA Consulting firmasının yaptığı toplantılarda, Türkiye'nin yazılım potansiyeli Amerikalı firmalara tanıtıldı. TET açıklamasına göre Birlik, Ekonomi Bakanlığı'nın Uluslararası Rekabetin Geliştirilmesi (UR-GE) Tebliği teşvikleri kapsamında hayata geçirdiği Yazılım Yurtdışı Pazarlama Takımı (Tetsoft) projesiyle yeni pazarlara açılmanın yolları arıyor. 
Turkey and the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization have signed a cooperation agreement aimed at supporting forestry in the Balkan and African countries. Turkey’s Forestry and Water Affairs Minister Veysel Eroglu and FAO Director General Jose Graziano da Silva signed the deal, which will provide $10 million for supporting forestry and controlling soil erosion and desertification, at Turkey’s Forestry and Water Affairs Ministry in Ankara on Wednesday.
ISLAMABAD - Founder of Pak-Turk Business Council Turgat Bayan Monday said that Turkey has planned to invest $1 billion during next three years in the communication, textile and automotive sectors in Pakistan. He said this while talking to chairman BoI M Zubair and apprised about the forthcoming investments from Turkey. Turgat Bayan stated that currently the FDI of Turkey in Pakistan is $370m and Turkey plans to invest $1 billion during the next three years in the communication, textile and automotive sectors. 
By Murat Guzel - Throughout the week, we have witnessed that the US media coverage of the Gezi Park protests in Turkey misrepresented a lot of the facts on the ground. The American public was presented with a sterilized and highly romanticized view of the protestors with almost no reference to very well-known hate-based ideological groups which capitalized on the opportunity for conflict. Moreover, a segment of the Turkish community in the United States sponsored an advertisement published by two major newspapers which further exploits the existing misunderstanding of the events. It is unfortunate to see that most of the information and commentary on these protests in Turkey suffers from a failure to understand Turkish politics and society, and therefore, misguides the American public opinion. 
