The lawyers gathered in front of the Sincan Train Station yesterday carrying banners reading “Coup? Never again,” “You pro-junta, go to Honduras” and “No junta.” Afterwards, the lawyers marched down the infamous Atatürk Street in support of democracy.
Speaking on behalf of the group, Platform President Hasan Hüseyin Tanrıverdi recalled that tanks rolled down the same street on Feb. 4 against democracy and the nation’s will. He said they held a demonstration called the “March for Democracy” at the same place on the 13th anniversary of the incident. “We do not want our country to go back to [the era of] coups, and we want the pro-junta mentality to become history. We support all who oppose such a mentality to the very end,” he said. Tanrıverdi said, as lawyers, they think the way to end anti-democratic actions is through a civilian and democratic constitution, stressing that Parliament should start working on a new constitution.
On Feb. 28, 1997, the coalition government led by Necmettin Erbakan of the now-defunct Welfare Party (RP) fell after an unarmed military intervention. In reference to the postmodern coup, which was termed a “soft coup,” then-Deputy Chief of General Staff Gen. Çevik Bir -- one of the leading figures of the process -- said on several occasions that they “did a balance check for democracy.”
