As declared by former Chief of General Staff Gen. Hilmi Özkök, the military's intervention in the Feb. 28 coup resulted in diametrically opposite outcomes.The Feb. 28 coup was a catastrophe for Turkey both politically and economically. It is now crystal clear that the democratically elected coalition government was a very weak one and that Necmettin Erbakan was light-years away from changing the constitutional system into an Islamist one, even if he had any intention of doing so. But his naïve rhetoric was manipulated by the oligarchy-friendly media and mixed with fabricated media stories to give an impression that the country was being Islamized. It was all part of psychological warfare to convince the masses that the military was right in pressuring the government out of office. Now, almost everyone in Turkey contends that the generals were power hungry and that their supporters from business and media circles had only economic reasons to topple the elected government. After the coup, a military-backed government came into power; businessmen and media continued to get lucrative deals from the state, state companies were sold to these businessmen for very cheap prices and even media-owners bought banks. Nearly without exception, all of these businessman and banks had retired four-star generals on their boards. But this could not go on, and after the economic crisis of 2001, we all learned that $50 billion was embezzled by the owners of these banks. The generals protested their innocence, saying they only attended board meetings once a month, received salaries and did not know anything about the workings of the banks. Obviously, they never wondered why they had been paid huge amounts of money just to attend board meetings, without any banking experience. Those who know the intricacies of Turkey's domestic political economy, of course, know the reason. Anyways, the Feb. 28 coup cost Turkey a lot, and one wonders what our allies in the liberal democratic world were doing while Turkey underwent such a devastating, undemocratic, unjust and illegitimate coup.
The US is the first country that comes to anyone's mind when talking about international reaction to a coup in Turkey, and we see that the US kept silent while the Turkish democracy was butchered by the generals. We know that US officials were repeatedly asked about the issue by the Turkish journalists based in Washington, D.C., and their only reply was, "No comment." Saying that the US does not interfere with the domestic affairs of its allies is only childish, or an insult to the intellect. First, we know that the US frequently comments on its allies' business, even preparing reports to that effect. Second, is a military coup in a democratic country equal to debating who collects a Turkish town's garbage more effectively? The US keeps talking about bringing democracy to the Middle East and is even prepared to invade countries for this "noble and lofty" ideal (see Iraq and Afghanistan), but it is not prepared to say that the Turkish democracy, free elections and democratically elected government should be respected by all parties involved. This is a rather miserable dilemma, and I feel sorry for the US officials. The Feb. 28 record was not their first or last incident. After the military issued a coup-threatening e-memo on April 27, 2007, to prevent Abdullah Gül from being democratically elected president, a US official was reported as saying that the US does not take sides. Between whom? A coup-threatening army and a democratically elected parliament.
The Turkish nation has consistently thanked the US for its "respect" of the Turkish people's decision by indicating at the polls that the overwhelming majority of the people do not trust the US government. I hope that the new US administration will revisit their Feb. 28 record and stop the Pentagon-based US habit of insulting the Turkish people's free and democratic choices.
