People from all ends of the political spectrum came together to criticize the military intervention, which dealt a severe blow to the democratization of the country and resulted in increased military presence in politics with the democratically flawed 1982 Constitution, whose despotic implications in a wide range of areas, from the judiciary to the media, continue to torment people.
In a meeting of the Freedom Association (ÖZGÜR-DER) organized in İstanbul's Fatih district, association head Rıdvan Kaya underlined in a speech that the Sept. 12 coup should not be considered a coup that was executed by a group of army officers but rather as springing from a mentality aspiring for a return to the 1920s and 1930s, when the country was governed without democracy or the rule of law. “With the coup, Quran courses, private establishments for teaching the Quran to children, were abolished, and the turban was banned everywhere,” stated Kaya.
The Human Rights Association (İHD), accompanied by the relatives of people missing since the coup, issued a press release at a rally in Galatasaray Square in İstanbul. Criticizing the military intervention, the press release said: “Do not die early. Dying is not easy for you,” in a message directed at coup leader Kenan Evren, who resides in southwestern Marmaris. The group urged authorities to try the people responsible for the coup.
Hasip Kaplan, Gülten Işık and Pervin Budan, deputies of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP), voiced their reactions to the bloody coup with a group protest in İstanbul's Kadıköy district. The Rights and Freedoms Party (HAK-PAR) organized a demonstration in front of Diyarbakır Prison, which has become a symbol of the coup due to the cruel psychological and physical torture inflicted on its prisoners, mostly of Kurdish origin, by military officers after the coup.
HAK-PAR chose the Gülhane Military Academy of Medicine (GATA), where Evren is currently receiving medical treatment, for another rally lambasting the 1980 coup. The group wanted to lay a black wreath at the building but was prevented from doing so by security forces. In addition to protests in İstanbul and Diyarbakır, rallies took place in Ankara and İzmir. In Ankara, nearly 2,500 people gathered downtown to protest the coup.
Photo exhibit of 1980 coup in Taksim
The Young Civilians, a civil society group that has launched sensational and creative protests and activities in support of democracy and the rule of law in Turkey, opened a photo exhibition with the cooperation of the “70 million steps against coups” coalition to offer a closer look at the results of the 1980 military intervention, at the Taksim metro station on Saturday. Evren, who has since his retirement taken up painting, was satirized in a statement from the group, which read, “In this exhibition you will find the real performance of Evren: the consequences of the coup he led, not his paintings.”
