A period of 1,000 years is a long span of time, but it is obvious that there are people who want to keep this process going. The leading players of the direct coup of Sept. 12, 1980 and the indirect coup of Feb. 28 are alive and kicking. The main players of the Feb. 28 process from the media are still "at work." Occasional confessions made by some of the media figures who played their part in this intervention process are staggering. Such confessions have been made a number of times by Dinç Bilgin, the former owner of the Sabah daily, who is a leading Feb. 28 figure. Despite the fact that their boss has gone, some leading journalists are still active, doing their job of coup provocation. Columnists, editors-in-chief and Ankara representatives are all there. The document designed as an action plan to terminate democracy, as disclosed by the Taraf newspaper on June 12, has been prepared with the same mentality. This document lists horrendous provocative actions. Now, the same players from the Feb. 28 process are rushing to claim that the document is not connected with the coup attempt. They uttered many things similar to this nonsense during the Feb. 28 process: fabricated news stories about "Quran training courses," headlines about "hair-raising oaths" or the "fight until a theological state is established" or the "Çankaya government" or "unarmed forces" and much more. The current document provides for horrific action. The document, undersigned by a colonel working at the headquarters of the General Staff, has now turned into a litmus test for the democratic sentiments of civilians and the military. Groups that have never paid respect to freedom of expression are now saying that "planning a coup or advocating a coup is not a thought crime." A party -- the RP -- that had secured the votes of about 6.1 million people was closed down just because it disclosed its opinions and tens of thousands of people were victimized. Such victimization still continues today. During the Feb. 28 process, the same columnists and editors-in-chief set off a witch hunt.
In 1997, I was a columnist at the Yeni Şafak newspaper, and I recalled that I had written: "We should prepare a page called the 'Feb. 28 page' in which we should quote the articles of leading journalists. This will provide a good archive for those who will write about these days in future. Perhaps, we will soon have the opportunity to provide these articles as proof of disgraceful acts by these columnists."
What gave the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) governmental office after the coalition government of the RP and the DYP and the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) office in 2002 was the rage the electorate felt against the military's meddling with civilian politics on Feb. 28. However, people are disappointed once again. This time, they are deceived by the "consensus doctrine." When they were told, "We will reach a consensus with three big powers and assume governmental office and stay there," they thought that this was a political tactic. Today, it has become evident that this was a fancy idea. In Turkey, radical reforms are needed, and in particular, European Union standards concerning the administrative structure must be implemented.
What will bring good days to Turkey is not the formula of "civilian-military alliance or consensus," but making sure that the military does not intervene in the will of civilian politicians and that they contain their interest to their specific area of activity. Today, it is clear that the military-civilian doctrine has proved to be false. Actually, everything was obvious from the start. The mentality of the Feb. 28 process could not live in the social and political life of Turkey, and those who imposed this doctrine on the minds of conservative politicians were forcing them to flog a dead horse. Even without this doctrine, the same politicians would have made the same achievements in politics. In 2002, the possibility of any of the center-right or center-left parties assuming governmental office was not even one in 1,000. A political movement profile was created out of deception, and this movement thinks that to reject its origins and traditions is to "perceive the change." The most important factor that has brought such complicated circumstances to the existing AK Party government was its failure to keep up with the reform process started in 2005, thinking that it could maintain its power by establishing an alliance with central forces. Turkish society now believes that politics must be left to civilians only. We have reached the end of the tradition of coups.
