Turkish Coup Pilots Had Erdogan’s Plane In Their Sight, Did Nothing

July 18th, 2016

Awake Goy

The Turkish coup remains a mystery as more information comes to light surrounding the failed coup attempt over the weekend.

It remains to be seen if the Turkish coup was a serious attempt to overthrow the government or an orchestrated series of events which has led to the current crackdown on opposition in Turkey.

On Friday night two rebel F-16s had President Erdogan’s business jet in their sights locked and loaded and yet allowed the plane to fly on, allowing the existing ruler returning back from his vacation to survive, negating the coup.

According to Reuters it remains a mystery for some military officers.

Zero Hedge reports:

As Reuters reports, at the height of the attempt to overthrow Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, the rebel pilots of two F-16 fighter jets had Erdogan’s plane in their sights. And yet he was able to fly on.

The government narrative, completely fabricated as it may be, is the following:

Erdogan said as the coup unfolded that the plotters had tried to attack him in the resort town of Marmaris and had bombed places he had been at shortly after he left. He “evaded death by minutes”, the second official said. Around 25 soldiers in helicopters descended on a hotel in Marmaris on ropes, shooting, just after Erdogan had left in an apparent attempt to seize him,pro-government broadcaster CNN Turk said. Prime Minister Binali Yildirim had also been directly targeted in Istanbul during the coup bid and had narrowly escaped, the official said, without giving details.

Flight tracker websites showed a Gulfstream IV aircraft, a type of business jet owned by the Turkish government, take off from Dalaman airport, which is about an hour and a quarter’s drive from Marmaris, at about 2240 GMT on Friday. It later circled in what appeared to be a holding pattern just south of Istanbul, around the time when a Reuters witness in the airport was still hearing bursts of gunfire, before finally coming in to land.

This is probably Erdogan’s plane: Turkish Government GIV TC-ATA circling now @avischarf pic.twitter.com/Aiwha8hZJZ

— David Cenciotti (@cencio4) July 15, 2016

It is what happened during Erdogan’s trip that is confusing. Again from Reuters:

The Turkish leader was returning to Istanbul from a holiday near the coastal resort of Marmaris after a faction in the military launched the coup attempt on Friday night, sealing off a bridge across the Bosphorus, trying to capture Istanbul's main airport and sending tanks to parliament in Ankara.

A senior Turkish official confirmed to Reuters that Erdogan's business jet had been harassed while flying from the airport that serves Marmaris by two F-16s commandeered by the coup plotters but that he had managed to reach Istanbul safely.

"At least two F-16s harassed Erdogan's plane while it was in the air and en route to Istanbul. They locked their radars on his plane and on two other F-16s protecting him," a former military officer with knowledge of the events told Reuters.

"Why they didn't fire is a mystery," he said.

Actually, now that we have seen the unprecedented crack down on all political opponents including the start of what is set to be a historic witch hunt, it is no mystery at all.