1 March 2010 / ALI ASLAN KILIÇ, ANKARA
Hüseyin Kocabıyık, the aide to former Prime Minister Tansu Çiller, who took over the government from the now-defunct Welfare Party’s (RP) leader, Necmettin Erbakan, after an unarmed military intervention on Feb. 28, 1997, has said the postmodern coup was in fact staged to deter Turkey from European Union membership and gaining admission to the EU customs union.
Speaking to Today’s Zaman, Kocabıyık said the Feb. 28 military intervention was different from others in Turkish history as it had economic grounds, though it seemed to be a politically motivated intervention. “Today, it is crystal clear that the ‘big capital’ in Turkey organized Feb. 28. As a matter of fact, when we look at the outcomes of Feb. 28, we see major embezzlements, siphoning money from banks,” he said. Stating that EU membership and the EU customs union lay behind the concerns of “big capital” then, Kocabıyık said: “When you look at the depths of Feb. 28, you see EU opposition. It is the organization of the big capital which was trying to prevent Turkey from joining the EU and the EU customs union in particular. They believed these would harm their enterprises.”
