Calling on everyone -- the military, politicians and the public -- to learn from the consequences of this process, they lament that Turkey’s failure to confront the coups in its history.Yeni Şafak’s Yasin Aktay finds it instructive that until several years ago, people could be found who claimed that there were positive aspects to the Feb. 28 postmodern coup, but today there is no one left who remembers those days fondly. Aktay admits that religious circles in Turkey who were victimized by the Feb. 28 coup have learned from this process and developed more rational and balanced political movements, as seen in the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party). Nevertheless, Aktay notes that it is unthinkable for these circles to owe thanks to a coup for this reason. To the contrary, he says religious circles recognizing the dimensions of the brutality they were exposed to and developing an appropriate response against brutality will not help the brutal bloc win any praise. “While religious circles in Turkey who represent the public developed their most virtuous political line, the supporters and perpetrators of the Feb. 28 process continued to make coup plans and embark on their greedy power quests,” Aktay explains.
Considering the fact that politicians at the time could have prevented the military from meddling in politics in 1997 but failed to do like other politicians had in the past, Aktay says politicians who see the coup plans of today as an opportunity should learn from the fates of the politicians of Feb. 28.
Vatan’s Ruşen Çakır regrets that despite the 13 years that have passed since the Feb. 28 postmodern coup, Turkey has not yet fully confronted this coup and has not taken the necessary lessons from it. He says many people supported “registered despots” (the military, which intervened in politics many times and staged coups) against “imaginary despots” (Islamists, who would allegedly shelve democracy if they came into power) during this process. “These people used to see the Islamic movement as an absolute danger and labeled those who were trying to understand this movement as secret pro-Shariah supporters. We all know that some of these people came to support democracy under all circumstances after the AK Party came to power. The point that they have reached is pleasing both for themselves and the nation,” says Çakır, calling on these circles not to trouble society by making up new dangers today.
Considering a widespread argument that suggests that the “military staged the Feb. 28 coup, Muslims were victimized,” Zaman’s Ahmet Turan Alkan says that although this argument is correct, it is incomplete since it ignores the role of the politicians in staging this coup. He says Feb. 28 is not only the work of the military, so the role civilians and politicians played in this process by not resisting the coup should not be ignored.
