US, Germany green light to Turkey coup possible: Author

Press TV has conducted an interview with John Steppling, author and commentator from Norway, to discuss the post-coup crackdown in Turkey.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Since the night of the failed coup in mid-July a few weeks back in Turkey and news of dismissals and apprehensions have been quite the norm coming from Ankara. What are your thoughts on the situation over there?

Steppling: I can't remember an event that has generated more contradictory reporting and more varying contradictory theories about what happened. If you look at the US and German response the night of the failed coup, there was extraordinary reluctance from both Germany and the US to condemn the coup at first and then later kind of once it had failed they made very perfunctory remarks.

There are two branches of theory here. One is that because the coup was so ineptly carried out there Erdogan staged it himself for some reason. The second theory is the deep state theory that this is somehow CIA, NATO orchestrated with Germany's helps so forth. I certainly have no idea, but you have to remember that Hillary Clinton is the presumptive president and her goals are pretty clear in terms of Syria. Obama has never been particularly respectful of Erdogan and not giving him much of what he wanted I don't think or at least in the way he wanted it.

It is hard to imagine that this coup happened without German and US consent somehow. Why it was so inept? I don't know was it a trial run for something later. I've heard people suggest that. It's very hard to tell yet, but there are more journalists in jail in Turkey than in journalism schools there, university. The crackdowns are in some ways hard to explain but that's been his personality all along. He’s very authoritarian guy. Personally, I think this is late to US, NATO goals in Syria but in what way exactly untangling this web of intrigue is very very difficult.

Press TV: Well, as you mentioned there are a lot of different opinions and hypotheses as to what actually took place on the night of the coup in Turkey. One of those elements that is getting a lot of controversy and a lot of question marks over it is the issue of Fethullah Gülen. Where does he fit into the big picture?

Steppling: Yeah, I sort of associated Gülen with US interests. I mean that's where he's situated at present. Again these are very contradictory why Gülen would be cooperating with US and NATO for example if in theory they want a secular state in Turkey but maybe that's not what they want. The US always wants a pliant partner. They don't much care beyond that. So, what strikes me is pretty symbolic thing but nothing more.

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