It is the first anniversary of the unsuccessful coup attempt of 15 July!
The attempted coup was not just a plan; it was a virtual “live broadcast attempt at a coup” with the use of war planes, tanks and military forces for all to see!
Hence, it was clear who attempted this coup, who was targeted and what values it was against.
In the year since the attempted coup:
- According to official figures, 169 thousand individuals have been investigated and 50 thousand prosecuted
- Tens of courts have prepared charge sheets and trials have begun
-172 journalists, MPs from HDP [People’s Democratic Party] and elected mayors have been arrested and replaced through assigned administrators
- The TBMM [Turkish Parliament] Investigation Committee on the attempted coup has been unable to prepare a report
- 100 thousand public sector workers have been sacked through KHKs [emergency decrees of law] without due process
- Hundreds of newspapers, TV and radio stations, magazines, publishers and internet news portals have been shut down
- The country is run through OHAL [State of Emergency] and KHKs
- Judiciary is completely subsidiary to executive power; the Parliament is toothless and looking to the President to function
In short, today, while the steps for a ‘one-party, one-man regime’ are swiftly taken, the public is more confused and it is harder to see the truth behind the events of 15 July.
Since those that are in power today have seen the attempted coup against them as a “gift from God”; they wanted the chaotic and complicated atmosphere in the aftermath to continue, both to achieve their own goals and to use it as an opportunity for the ‘one-party, one-man regime’ they dreamed of for a long time.
Therefore, the following questions become more urgent;
- “Who is behind the attempted coup?”
- “Why is it that the news of the attempted coup was received from the brother-in-law, family members and friends rather than MIT [National Intelligence Agency] and other state intelligence organisations?”
- “Why weren’t the Undersecretary of MIT and Chief of Defence, called for by the TBMM Commission investigating the coup, sent to testify by the political leadership?”
- “Who was the political leg of such a complicated coup; who was going to be the Prime Minister and other ministers of the coup?”
- “Why is the work of the TBMM Commission being sabotaged by AKP [ruling party]?”
- ...
These questions, that would reveal the details of the coup into Turkey and the whole world, are unanswered (because they do not want to give the real answers) or are glossed over with answers that no one believes in. Unavoidably, the questions of “What was the link between the government and the coup; does the political leg of the coup include individuals in unassailable positions?” become louder.
CHP [Republican Peoples’ Party] and many others that try to understand what happened to arrive at the conclusion that “this coup was controlled!”. Furthermore, many governments around the world approach the attempted coup with suspicion; due to official reasons and fantastical scenarios put forward. Scenarios that cannot be taken seriously even in “banana republics”, let alone such a big country like Turkey! Hence the Prime Minister’s complaint recently that “we say we lived through the attempted coup, we explain it but nobody believes us.”
Well, do the AKP government, the President and the nucleus formed around his ‘one-man regime’, all of whom claim proudly that they know everything, not know that what they say cannot convince anyone?
Of course, they do, but neither can they create a myth nor an ideology from what is known; it might even lead to the unearthing of truths that may ‘touch a sore spot’.
As ‘hunters’ of ‘unknowns’, ‘the fantastical’ and the twilight zone created by the preposterous ‘threats’ and intimidation at every turn; what they need is an atmosphere of ‘fog’, ‘ghoulish voices’ and ‘intimidating visions’, where the real and the unreal become indistinct, entangled and lost within each other. They think that hiding the truth behind a fog of ‘all tones of grey’ will make it much easier to create ‘myths’ that normalise everything obscured by this fog; to create and give credibility to the ideology of a 'one-man regime’ feeding on this uncertainty. It seems that they planned to base their meeting the need for a ‘myth of resurrection’ and ‘ideology of liberation’ on 15 July.
Undoubtedly, the idea to create such myths and ideologies from such situations was not implanted in the minds of the members of this ‘nucleus’ recently. These attempts have taken place at least since the ‘Gezi Uprising’ but the attempted coup of 15 July is seen as a “gift from God”. Through the creation of a “martyrs-veterans” cult and blending of “one flag, one country, one nation, one state” with their ‘Rabia’; decorated with monuments, ceremonies, exhibitions, ‘democracy watches’, constant calls to prayers and readings of the Quran to mark this anniversary; the ‘concepts’, ‘holy sites’ and ‘rituals’ of the ‘one-party, one-man establishment’ are created.
Thus, the July issue of the monthly magazine of the DİB (Presidency of Religious Affairs) has been dedicated to 15 July and an article in the magazine portrayed ‘FETÖ’ [Fethullahist Terrorist Organisation] as a product of the Republican enlightenment.
In the article; it is claimed that “FETÖ, a product of the period of radical modernisation in Turkey, served as a refuge for religious individuals within a society alienated from religion… elements of FETÖ, having long manipulated the Turkish political system by exploiting the gaps created by custodial parliamentarism, ultimately tried to remove the AKP government and democracy in Turkey”. Hence, Republican modernisation has been held responsible for the attempted coup by FETÖ. Just as in the attempts to portray CHP as the “political leg of the coup”.
In a recent speech, President Erdoğan said “Every year on 18 March, we remember Gallipoli; from now on 15-16 July will be remembered likewise. I invite our citizens to ‘democracy watches’. It is vital to repeat them every year to ensure that 15 July is not forgotten”; practically declaring the “Republican Day of the one-man regime.”
Along the lack of clarity on the most important questions of the attempted coup of 15 July, this is where we are a year after it took place.
İhsan Çaralan
Bülent Falakaoğlu
Hakkı Özdal
