He has had almost regular meetings with all sorts of Justice and Development Party (AK Party) enemies and has denounced the AK Party's policies and decisions whenever the opportunity arose. After his presidency ended in May 2000, the Ecevit government tried to amend the Constitution for the benefit of Demirel and wanted to elect him for a second time, but Parliament did not approve such a move, which Demirel was enthusiastically but not surprisingly supporting. He had to retire from politics but showed every sign that he wanted to come back as a national hero like France's legendary Charles de Gaulle. De Gaulle was a successful military general of the French army during World War II. He became prime minister of the French Provisional Government following the liberation but retired from politics in 1949 as his ideas for a non-Westminster type regime with a strong presidency were not espoused by his colleagues. But he returned to power with military support during the May 1958 political crisis following the turmoil in Algeria and established the current Fifth Republic, which is a strong semi-presidential system with the prime minister not having much say on several issues. He was elected president and led his nation until 1969.
I am in no way trying to compare Demirel with de Gaulle since unlike Demirel, he was a republican by conviction. Demirel would accept power from whatever source it comes. During the Feb. 28 coup process, with the help of the military and the turmoil created by the military, he became a very strong president by simply not allowing the democratically elected government to run the country. One does not have to be a genius to comprehend that he has not been happy since the November 2002 elections, when the AK Party came to power with a very strong majority, with no hope for Demirel to have turmoil in the country that would require his heroically coming back. The fact that he returned to daily politics by publicly throwing his weight behind Hüsamettin Cindoruk is a good sign that Demirel gave up hope that the military would create havoc in the country and would call Demirel back to save the nation. This is obviously tremendous news that Demirel indirectly concurs with so many others that the army does not the have political power to stage yet another coup in the country.
That does not mean that there are not probably thousands among the military officers who would love a coup. They have always existed and will continue to exist for at least another two to three decades. The question is not to have them or not to have them but is the balance of power between different factions in the military. It is true that international conjecture, economy and the potential resistance to a military coup by the police and by civilians and so on are some of the factors that potential coup stagers have to take into account. But it is merely naïve to expect that all coup lovers in the army care about these factors. Some of them are so fanatical that they are ready to butcher a few million and transform the country into an isolated militarist “oasis” like North Korea. But this group is only one of the factions. Adm. Özden Örnek and journalist Mustafa Balbay's memoirs confirm that there are other groups in the military who would not mind a coup if it is supported by their “god,” the US, or groups who would stage a coup if the media structure is suitable for convincing the masses of the legitimacy of such a coup. But we also understand that there are thousands in the army who are as democratic as Hilmi Özkök, the democrat. You weren't thinking that Özkök was an alien from space with no one else of his kind, were you?
The return of the fake de Gaulle to daily politics is a simple but crucial confirmation by a deep source that the balance of power has shifted towards the “Özkökian democrats” in the army, and the fake de Gaulle has to create his own havoc and turmoil by himself. Unfortunately, this is something he is very good at. He should not be ignored.
