“This will never be the case. Such a thing would be disrespectful to the Turkish Armed Forces [TSK],” the president said in response to a question on whether Turkey would see a coup in 2010. Unfortunately, military coups and memorandums are not uncommon in Turkey, and the progress of Turkish democracy has been halted with successive military attempts to meddle in politics, some of which resulted in the killing of many. In consideration of Turkey’s special circumstances, where the military sees itself as the guardian of the political regime, analysts disagree with Gül, saying that a military coup or memorandum is still likely to take place in Turkey.Bugün’s Nuh Gönültaş says he was disappointed by Gül’s statements as he asks Gül what the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) has done to deserve Gül, saying that it would be disrespectful to the TSK to talk about the prospects of a coup in Turkey. “Gül may be voicing his good will, an ideal, something that needs to be in place in democracies. But things are not so in Turkey. How many chiefs of General Staff have so far come up and announced that they were against coups? To the contrary, when you look at the history of the TSK in the short history of the Turkish Republic, you can see that it is a history of coups. It was a single-party era until 1946, and the military worked for the settlement, adoption and spread of Atatürk’s reforms. Ever since Turkey’s adoption of the multi-party regime, the TSK has never stopped meddling in politics,” explains Gönültaş. Talking about the military memorandums and coups that took place in Turkey in 1960, 1972, 1980 and 2007 as well the damage they dealt the country, he says the TSK’s sword has never wavered from above the head of Turkish politics. “The TSK has always been a source of concern for every government because of its quest to intervene in politics. These concerns are not of the sort that can be eliminated with good will statements,” suggests Gönültaş.
Sabah’s Haşmet Babaoğlu also thinks a coup is likely to take place in Turkey. Especially if the unemployment level reaches a record high, young people are forced to wander the streets without any jobs, the number of people who live below the hunger line increases and more importantly, the disappearance of the middle class becomes very troublesome, these developments may pave the way for an anti-democratic intervention in politics.
Hürriyet’s Mehmet Y. Yılmaz, who thinks there is not a strong democratic consciousness in Turkey, says a coup, either civilian or military, is always possible in Turkey. “It is not possible to talk about a strong civilian opposition or well-organized nongovernmental organizations in Turkey. Political parties are not in sufficient interaction with the public. The public’s participation in politics is made up of going to the ballot boxes from election to election. In our society, the adoration of power is widespread, while there is no tradition of revolting against authority. Pardon me, but a coup is always likely to take place in such a country,” suggests Yılmaz.
