Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan seems to have benefited substantially from the failed coup plot as he now has few opponents remaining in official institutions, writes Turkmen Terzi.
It was 9pm on a Friday night, the busiest time of the week in the city of Istanbul. A short video was spreading virally on social media showing a young man questioning a soldier as to why the Bosphorus Bridge had been blocked.
“Is there a bomb threat?” the civilian questions, “No, Turkish Armed Forces are taking over management, this is not a joke, all of you go home!” the soldier replies.
In a short time, the whole of Turkey falls into shock as military jets and helicopters bombard the parliament, intelligence headquarters and the presidential palace. There were no high ranking military personnel on the street.
Although one military tank was seen firing at civilians, the rest were trying to move away from the angry crowd, and in the process caused many injuries and damage to vehicles.
Soldiers were trying to calm the angry crowd, stating they were under orders of a training exercise and were not aware of a ‘coup’. In a number of instances soldiers were attacked by the angry crowds. However, contrary to the previous coups in Turkey, the police didn’t surrender to the military but instead fought back.
This dark night in the history of Turkey left 265 people dead including 60 police officers, 3 soldiers and 145 civilians. A further 1491 people were wounded in the clashes.
The Army is the most respected institution
Turkey is a nation originally from central Asia which has always been proud of its five thousand years of military history which is an inspiration even for modern armies today. During the Ottoman period, about 10 Ottoman Sultans were toppled by soldiers. The New Republic was founded by soldiers, and up to today they accepted their role as custodian of the “Kemalist Regime”.
The 1960 coup was successful when the military junta hung Prime Minister Adnan Menderes and his two ministers. In 1971, 1980 and 1997 juntas toppled elected governments.The Turkish public never resisted the coup leaders as the military had intervened after months of political crises. In the late seventies, leftist and nationalists were killing each other, and it was the 1980 coup that ended the chaos.For that reason a large part of the society welcomed the coup.
A strange coup
Turks know what a coup is, and the power of the army. The amateur nature of the attempted coup by segments of the Turlish army last week surprised veteran observers of military coups.
In Anatolia, all military juntas have first taken over the media. The second step is always to arrest government leaders. Contrary to these two fundamental rules of implementing a coup, in last Friday's coup soldiers blocked the two bridges during the busiest time of week. Secondly the coup plotters never touched the pro-government media which comprises almost 80 percent of the press.
But the coup leaders did stop almost 200 local television stations from broadcasting, as well as the opposition media. We need to remember that the ruling AKP took over most of the media institutions over the last 10 years by appointing trustees from the State Fund, and now closely monitors the critical media.
Another strange point is that Erdogan was not seen by the media for four days prior to the coup. When the coup started he flew to Istanbul Airport - which was under military control - from his hotel in Marmaris. This was a strange strategy to pursue. More worryingly, two junta pilots were flying over the cities while President Erdogan was in the air. The question is why did Erdogan take such a big risk?
Another point is, why did the army’s 160 jets not confront the two junta jets? Fuat Avni is an anonymous twitter “phenomenon,” who exposes sensitive information about the government. Avni said that these two junta jets actually escorted Erdogan’s aircraft. Only four junta soldiers entered state media TRT, after Erdogan made a call via social media for Turks to protest in the streets.
Junta soldiers also cut the broadcasts of CNN TURK for one hour. The point here is that not a single AKP leader or any military officers were arrested by the military. From the onset of the coup attempt, pro-Erdogan writers, commentators, columnists, and AKP politicians were on air. They continuously called people onto the streets. Within an hour, thousands of people filled the streets of Turkey.
Understanding the coup in light of recent incidents
In 2013, the Gezi Park Protest was the uprising against Erdogan’s authoritarian rule. Leaked voice recordings exposed that Interior Minister Muammer Guler begged Erdogan to allow small group of protesters to announce their statement. Erdogan ordered the police to disperse the crowd. Soon after that millions joined protesters throughout the entire country. Prime Minister Erdogan had said that it was the 'interest lobby' who wanted to topple him who were behind the Gezi Protests.
The daughter in law of Istanbul’s Mayor had claimed that at least 70 half-naked men had urinated on her and beat her, insulted her headscarf and threatened Erdogan in an interview with pro-Erdogan journalist Elif Cakir. Erdogan used that allegation to sow divisions between religious members of society and secularists.
Finally Erdogan motivated millions of his constituents against the secularists and Turkish society has remained divided.
Months later Turkey’s biggest corruption case opened against Erdogan’s inner circle and his son. Four ministers resigned. Instead of answering the charges, Erdogan announced that the 17-25 December corruption operations were a coup against him by the Gulen Movement. He formed illegal “Special Courts” and opened thousands of trials. These courts arrested hundreds of police, prosecutors and judges.
Almost 30 000 police officers were affected, and eventually Erdogan exerted full control over the judiciary and police.
The Turkish Army remained the last institution in need of purging, over which Erdogan had no control. Erdogan supported the Ergenekon trial which tried hundreds of high ranking army officers who were given lengthy jail terms. Recently Turkish appeals courts overturned 'Ergenekon' coup plot convictions, and “secular” soldiers were released.
It is very strange that some high ranking army officers who were released with Erdogan’s support were involved in last Friday's coup. Most shockingly, the top organizer of the coup, Major General Mehmet Disli, is the brother of the ruling AKP’s Deputy President Saban Disli.
Risk of internal war
Erdogan and Prime Minister Binali Yildirim blamed Fethullah Gulen for the coup within an hour, and the government released 35 soldier's names of the military junta. Nobody understands how the AKP blamed 2,750 judges and prosecutors for the coup. If the AKP had such intelligence, why didn’t they prevent the coup? How is it possible that Gulen supporters within the Army went from 35 to 6,000 soldiers, including dozens of generals?
Now Erdogan has few opponents remaining in official institutions, and it seems that the supposed coup attempt has ultimately served his interests on many fronts.
Foreign Bureau