“Manifestos become irrelevant, media responds like a mature giant bound not to
be erred like stillborn, the boys used to sit on the street corners become less
coquettish, one from a clique behaves like a crowned king, publishers shift
their focus to some other part-time work, routine days haunt like ceaseless
deadly terrorized interminable school days , heinous mugged swarm becomes
extremely gravest, all traditional mocking politicians exactly behave like
“shaitan (demon) in Ramadan”, political slogans only chant in hearts, clerks act
like virgin spinsters not to put nose in the matters relived their knowledge or
patience, provoking thoughts become petrified hallucinations full of dust,
thirst, humdrum and weariness; when a military coup takes place”.
TURKISH COUP PLOTTERS ‘FIRED ON MEDICS’: EYEWITNESSES
This was the news published in newspapers right after the failed Turkish coup.
Before getting deeper into the issue, let me tell you; either the state affairs
are managed and run by democratically elected mandate or dissidently imposed
military coup. Off-course, by democratically elected, I truly mean by the will
of majority of the dwellers under the impartial surveillance of officials. By
and large, coup attempt occurs when any government fails to provide the common
needs to its habitants and unable to carry out the state affairs like foreign
policy, internal stability, minorities, state oriented development and other
public affairs. But, present day turkey has been suffering from agonizing
exacerbating dilemma since its independence as modern state. There has been
going on an ideological fight between two isolated cliques having the agenda of
reconstructing turkey; a state full of secular nationalists and in contrast,
Islamic nationalists, precisely.
Before the emergence of modern turkey, there was a whole Ottoman Empire running
ceaselessly from centuries. By and by after World War 1, turkey emerged as a
traitor chanting the slogans of modern independent secular turkey. Right after
WW1, when the Ottoman Empire started to collapse, a “treaty of Sevres” signed in
1920 which carved up the Ottoman Empire into regions and announced the
independent territories for the victors of the WW1 and also various places for
the sectarians and other religious groups were also granted the lands including
the Kurds and America. Subsequently, Mustafa Kamal; an officer of Turkish army
started thinking of laying the foundations of modern turkey. So, he instigated
the nationalist verbs among the Turks. Under the leadership of Kamal, Turks
fought wars against various contributors of the treaty, including the Greeks,
Americans, French, Italians and the British. Later, the “treaty of Lausanne”
signed in 1923, giving claimants a Modern Turkey.
Since its emergence as modern state, turkey has faced the confrontation vibes of
violated disturbance by the ideologically distinct groups. One of the group
praises the “Kamalism movement” and other follows the “Islamism movement”.
Turkey has been influenced by few renowned public figures including Mustafa
Kamal, FethullahGulen and TayyupErdogan.
Doubtlessly, Mustafa Kamal was the one who made possible the agenda of Modern
Turkey. He had given the honorary name “Attaturk” meaning the “father of Turks”
because of his commendable services for the establishment of “Republic of
Turkey” in 1934. He was born in 1884 with name Mustafa, but later his
mathematics teacher gave him the name “Kamal” because of his perfection in
mathematics. He started his career as a military officer and resided at various
designations. He also took part in wars including the World War 1, Balkan wars,
Italo-Turkish wars and war of independence. On October 29th 1923, the republic
of Turkey was pro-claimed and Kamal laid down his “Kemalist ideology” for the
welfare of the Republic of Turkey. Until his death in 1938, he had clearly
transformed the pro-claimed Islamic turkey into a secular, modern and democratic
country.
On the contrary to Kamal, both FethullahGelun and Tayyuperdogan are Islamist.
FethullahGelun was born in 1941 in a religiously rich family. He has been
serving as Turkish preacher, imam and write. He belongs to a very humble
background with immense Islamic teachings. His father was imam and mother taught
the Islamic lessons to the neighboring villages until got banned by the Kemalist
government. Gulen is the Founder of notable “Gulen Movement”. Gulen has started
his Islamic teachings by saying that, “He is a Muslim who believes in science,
multi-party government, interfaith relations and harmony”. Initially, he
established relations with renowned Jewish businessmen and bureaucrats. He once
said, “Sufism is the inner dimension of Islam and how could inner dimension be
possibly different from outer dimension”. He teaches that every Muslim has the
responsibility of goodwill regardless of their color, cast, creed, political
affiliation, religion or sect and every Muslim should conduct peaceful gravest
dialogues not with the “people of the Book” and people from other religions, but
also with atheists and agnostics. Due to his teachings and way of sacred imamat,
his followers have constructed more than 1000 schools around the globe, which
claims to promote the interfaith and transnational dialogues. His “Gulen
Movement” have been praised a lot and his followers and well-wishers from media
and around the globe have promoted it as a movement of peace, harmony and
rudiments of justice. On the other hand, TayyupErdogan is more indulged in
public affairs and politics and his involvement played a pivotal rule in the
Turkish poltics. He has been enjoying the supremacy after winning with heavy
mandate. He has proven himself a mature and workaholic leader who has entirely
uplifted the Turkish economy from nowhere to the highest glories.
This is not the first time when turkey is drenched with the deadly fewer of
military intervention. Turkey has a long history of military take overs. It
started in 1960, when a clique of 38 military officers led by General staged a
coup and cleanse the democratically elected government and oust the sitting
president of Democrat Party. Dark days of dictatorship ended in 1965, when an
elected government took charge. Then in 1971, there was a famous “Coup by
memorandum” took place and right-wing islamist and left-wing radical
nationalists started fighting each other and that anarchy situation made
impossible for the government to run. So, some senior officers from military
decided to hijack the system in order to create peace in the country. The 1980
turkish coup was the third attempt, when chief of General took charge of the
state and declared martial law in the country due to left and right wing deadly
petrified controversies. The consequences of 1993 military coup was even worse
than the previous ones.
It was 15th of July when a faction from military tried to oust President
TayyupErdogan and wanted to wrap the elected government, but badly failed whilst
of a very energetic push. At 10:00 pm, shots heard inside military complex and
military activity stated involving the helicopters and tanks without any
established orders from chief of the generals or state. Some of the pro-coup
soldiers entered into the state broadcast agency (TRT) and forcefully broadcast
a statement that, “We hereby declare a martial law in the country under the
surveillance of “Committee of Peace at Home”. Everyone in the country will have
a right to live with justice and prosperity. All the international agreements
are still valid.” Soldiers seized the Bosphorous and fatih sultan Mehmet bridges
for delinking the Asia and Europe with Turkey. At 12:00, there spread a rumor
that the coup was staged by the members of terrorist organization (FETO) under
the direction of FethullahGulen. President TayyupErdogan had been on family trip
to south turkey when this incident took place. At 12:11 am on Saturday,
president left Mararis and a few minutes later, he addressed the nation via
telephone app, advocating the people to resist the coup attempt and defend
democracy by making their way into the streets. Between 1:00 to 3:00 am, police
departments and security agencies were shot badly by pro-coup elements using
helicopters in Ankara. The chief of the generals along with other authoritative
personals were kept hostage by the soldiers. The extradition of some soldiers
took place. Streets were flowed out with the supporters of TayyupErdogan and
started confronting the soldiers. Prime ministers also said in his statement
that,” we are still in charge and the staged unsuccessful coup has been
tweezered out. The traitors will have to pay a very huge price, surely”. After
the landing of the Turk president TayyupErdogan in Istanbul, he said, “Those who
tried to revolt will be punished badly and he blamed US-based FathullahGulin for
the coup”. Around 9:00 am, majority of the soldiers surrendered themselves.
Later, many skirmish incidents took place, but condition had become normal.
In a public gathering after the failed coup, president tayyuperdogan said, “We
firmly demand America to extradite the self-exile US-based cleric FethullahGelun
for his involvement in the failed coup”. Then, people stated chanting that we
want the execution of all the involved rebels. In response to the accusations,
FathullahGulen replied, “How could a person who had been damaged so much by the
coups think of installing a coup. He called the accusations a very irresponsible
narrative”. On the other side, Americans denied the extradition of Gulen and
asked Turkey to provide legit evidence of his involvement. Also, they threatened
Erdogan that if Turkey has ever tried to reinforce the capital punishment then
they will be blacked out from the European Union (EU).
Also, some of the sources claimed the involvement of Kamalism sympathizers. The
“Kemalism and Islamism” conspiracy is known to everyone. Mustafa Kamal wanted to
transverse turkey into a secular, modern society with no space for the
headscarves, whereas islamists countered by implying the Islamic laws in the
country. President Tayyuperdogan coalition with FathullahGulan had tried very
best to eradicate the kemalist elements from the society and they glorified with
victory to some extent. For the sake of the purpose, Erdogan launched “Ergokenan
Trials” in 2011 to severely punish the suspected accusatory of the 2003 coup
attempt. Unde hut of the trials, 275 accused including the military officials,
lawmakers and bureaucrats were sentenced to lengthy imprisonment. In 2013, Gulen
accused TayyupErdogan for corruption and involvement of his son too. After that
accusation, Erdogan focused on removing the Gulanist elements from Turkey. When
Gulen saw things not favoring him, he went to America for political asylum.
This recent military coup failed because of following reasons:
• The coup plotters planned to undertake on the morning of sixteenth but Turkish
intelligence got some suspects and plotters had to start the attempt on
fifteenth with fragile co-ordination.
• Plotters neither seek any political affiliations for the purpose nor any
public support.
• Media played an instrumental role in failing the coup. President, Prime
Minister used media to mobilize their supporter. Planners could have easily
stopped all the media but inexperience and improper planning had bitten them the
dust.
• After Erdogan’s message, all the mosques started praying and that boosted the
morale of the public and they started marching towards streets chanting “Allah o
Akbar”.
• After the chiefs of both army and naval were arrested, they couldn’t find any
support from the military.
Aftermath of the coup reveals the fact of hundreds of detained and sacked
officials from different departments. Around 15,200 have suspended from
Education ministry and more than 8,777 have suspended from the interior ministry
due to allegations of being the facilitators. On the defense side, 17,000
personals have detained including the judges, police officers, soldiers and
admirals. Moreover, thousand have been dismissed from religious sectors, TRT
news agency, PM office staff, University deans, finance ministry and governors.
Millions of Gulen emphasizers have arrested due to accusations of involvement in
the failed coup. It is also reported that detainees have treated inhumanly and
even rape cases has also witnessed.
This failed military coup would certainty have a pivotal importance on the
future of Turkey. It will definitely have a noticeable and explicit impact on
the government’s structure and other affairs. This issue will definitely
motivate and create consensus with others over the constitution issue which
TayyupErdogan has been praising since before his presidency. This will also
affect the immature stillborn relationship with the kurds. Turkey will try to
establish smooth relations with neighbors as many of its neighbors have
condemned the coup attempt and marked it a black day for democracy.
To sum it all, democracy bleeds when a dictator overthrows the sacred mandate of
dwellers. As someone said, “Even the worst form of democracy is still better
than the dictatorship”.
References:
1. https://studies.aljazeera.net/mritems/Documents/2016/7/28/2333ba64771c4a8fbf9b271f709d7865_100.pdf
2. https://aa.com.tr/uploads/AnadoluPost/2016/07/22/353954d1733447b17c95bbe02ceb56b7.pdf