On July 15 at 9:48 p.m., a news portal sent me a message from its social media account. A breaking news warning was given with the message: "Troops in front of Beylerbeyi Palace: Martial law was declared. Everybody, go home!"
Yes, the message was familiar. But the sender was as familiar as the message. The poster of this message was a website named Haberdar, one of Gulenist Terror Organization's (FETÖ) media bases. After that moment the website started to post articles trying to prove that the military carried out "a successful coup in the chain of command."
Precisely 12 minutes after the FETÖ news outlet shared the "coup succeeded" message, it was heard that tanks were positioned to cut off traffic on the Bogazici and Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridges in Istanbul, and in a few minutes people began to share that warplanes were flying low over Ankara. Soon it was heard that helicopters opened fire on the MIT and Chief of Defense, and that the police and troops were clashing in front of public buildings in different parts of the country. In less than 30 minutes after the news broke, claims that Ataturk Airport was besieged by tanks and the control tower was seized by pro-coup soldiers started to circulate.
These events were not so unique in Turkey's political history. Yes, Turkey had witnessed similar events that had been recounted several times until this point."Turkey's political history is the history of coups," they told us for years. Tanks would head to the streets, they would seize public buildings, the state radio and television would broadcast a "coup announcement," and finally, state and government officials would be arrested and a new era would begin.
This time it did not go like this. Before the coup plotters got a chance to force TRT to read the coup announcement, the Prime Minister Binali Yildirim had gone live on A Haber at 11:05 p.m. and said that a group within the Turkish armed forces had undertaken an unlawful coup attempt, and that the government was on duty and the public must protect democracy. He tenaciously highlighted that this attempt was not being carried under the chain of command. TV channels, especially A Haber, started announcing that a junta led by Gulenist Terror Organization (FETÖ) was behind this coup attempt. The pro-coup terrorists were firstly defeated in the media war. When they seized the TRT building and forced a presenter to read the coup announcement at gunpoint, the environment they had planned to affect no longer existed. People already knew that "they were faced by a terrorrist organization nested in Turkish Armed Forces."
But the essential move that purged the coup attempt was President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's call to the public to stand up against the invasion of "that certain organization." Civilians not only crowded the streets, but also provided moral support to the government's legitimate security forces, stood in front of tanks, and managed to stop the coup plotters. Terrorists were not idle, they ran over people with tanks. They selected targets and opened fire on civilians. They bombed public buildings, especially the parliament. There was an assassination attempt on President Erdogan. That night terrorists killed 246 people and 176 of them were civilians. Coup plotters terrorizing the streets with government-owned firearms could not succeed. They were captured by state security forces. Members of the terrorist organization, who had been in direct clashes and those who had provided them with logistical support from the government's different units were arrested. Now it's time for the prosecution of these pro-coup terrorists.
Three Steps That Must Be Taken
There are several steps ahead of us that must be taken. The first step is bringing down the FETÖ, which recently tried its best to throw Turkey into the fire and attempted a coup with governmentowned aircrafts, tanks and firearms. To achieve this, the leader of this movement must be captured and deprived of his financial resources; his domestic and international activites must be terminated; and all of his followers should be brought to justice.
The second step is taking all kinds of measures in order to prevent any group from turning into a terrorist organization like FETÖ. There should be an environment where any group, regardless of its ideology, is not allowed to use state power for its own interests or to form a parallel organization within the state.
And finally, structural adjustments that won't allow any non-political tools, especially the "military coup" apparatus, to restrain the legitimate and democratic politics must be made. Though civil-military relations in Turkey after 2002 have been shaped in favor of civilians, the July 15 coup attempt unfortunately showed that Turkey has yet to completely rid itself of the "military coup" threat. There is no doubt that the democratization we experienced after 2002, and the political stability, economic growth and social welfare we have witnessed have played a major role in repelling the July 15 coup attempt. On the other hand, military educational institutions must be subjected to an extensive revision; spatial arrangements must be made in order for the military to gather in several bases across the country instead of gathering in scattered garnisons in each city; transitioning into a professional military must be ensured, and other similar steps must be taken.
Who Was Caught Red-Handed?
"A revolution took place in Turkey, but it is not clear who won. On the microphone, one says 'We won' and then the other says 'We won'!" In 1962, the BBC announced Talat Aydemir's "failed coup attempt" like this. A fight between two sides!
The years in between moved Turkey forward. But the Westerners' outlook on Turkey remained the same. Turkey's modernization, democratization, institutionalization and growth processes, had no effect on their essentialist, discriminatory and alienating perspective. Moreover, they preferred putting effort into reversing Turkey's, modernization and democratization processes.
US and British media reported the July 15 coup attempt with no surprise, and by mentioning "two sides" and "a conflict between two sides" in each report they broadcasted. Who were these two sides? An elected government and a military junta. Such was the case in 1962. But this time the BBC went further. BBC producer James Bryant, sent emails telling people he was looking for someone who would "criticize the governments' actions" and it was hard for him to find such people these days. The BBC, which sells objectivism to the world, set out in a hunt for "antigovernment," meaning "pro-coup" opinions when it came to Turkish democracy.
Yes, now there are many more. First, this military junta is not an ordinary pro-coup organization that was formed within the army: this junta is managed by a so-called "cleric" who lives in the United States and, whose followers see him as a Mahdi. We are facing a terrorist organization nested within the military for decades. And this organization uses all kinds of terrorist methods during a coup attempt that only suits itself. However, these do not really catch the Western media's attention!
The Westerners who look at Turkey as they did in the 1960s, cannot see how civilian politics got strong in Turkey, how the people sit at the center of power, how democracy was protected and Erdogan is the leading symbol of a new modernization movement progressing upwards.
Do not these variations, these changes ever concern the Western media? Indeed, they utilized once again the usual patterns, prejudices and recitations in handling the July 15 coup attempt and poeple's successful attempt at purging it. After realizing that "Erdogan was the winner" of those "two sides" they started to chant "anti-Erdogan" slogans one after another. The rhetoric repeated for the last 3 years was brought together in 3-4 hours and serviced.
People's fight against pro-coup terrorists on the streets was ignored. The Western media, which mythicized the Gezi attempt, tried to suppress the civil side of the July 15 resistance and portrayed people on the streets as "Islamist militants."
Lies, tabloid-like gossips, excessive comments and manipulations were grotesquely abundant. All this happened right under the nose of Turkish people and continues to do so.
This time Turkey really saw who is a friend and who is a foe. Undoubtedly, this attitude of Western media, particularly the US and British media might bring an escalating Western opposition in Turkey. The Western world that protects Fethullah Gulen and his terrorist organization, will continue to raise the eyebrows of Turkish citizens, and all actors engaged in politics in Turkey will take those reactions seriously. Rest assured that the attitude of the US and British media stems from mere Orientalist prejudices. And there is a "strategic" side to this issue. It strikes me that some people thought that a coup attempt that was carried out by FETÖ would at least succeed in the assassination of Tayyip Erdogan and even if the coup attempt failed at the end of the day, Turkish politics would have been open to intervention and manipulation. Maybe this scenario looked endearing to some of them. However, the attempt of political surgery was not successful. Neither the coup, nor the assassination attempt could be successful.
The Opportunities of the New Era
The President Erdogan and his family were thankfully saved from the assasination attempt. Erdogan's leadership played a major role in undermining this coup attempt. And all of this happened before the public eye. Today, Erdogan's leadership represents a very different meaning in the eyes of different actors involved in Turkey's politics than it did before July 15. Secondly, the discourse of "localism and nationalism" Erdogan mentioned before July 15 appeals to a wider audience from all levels. Thirdly, both Erdogan's development and combat strategies now have a greater capacity to move a wider sociopolitical ground than they did before July 15. Fourthly, a political interaction opportunity arised during the purging of the coup, which had not been experienced between different political actors for many years.
When we take all this into account, we should see that today we live in a much safer and stronger Turkey than before July 15; we now have a much wider area of opportunity to eliminate new threats and to use new facilities.
