Can pro-coup voters make a party win the election?
by Mümtaz’Er Türköne

As the political spectrum and the political competition among parties are shaped according to these debates, this case will certainly influence the election results.

There is the likelihood of the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AK Party) transforming into an uncontrolled power. However, this is not because the AK Party is acting recklessly, but because there is no opposition. Apparently, there is no opposition party around that intends to balance and restrain the AK Party. There are three months and three weeks left before the elections. By looking at the current political atmosphere, we can assert that the sole winner of the election will be the AK Party with 50 percent of the national vote. Can the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) exceed 25 percent? Can the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) pass the election threshold? Beyond this daisy fortune game, these parties are failing to exhibit the slightest effort regarding the election. Rather, they voluntarily enter the same coffin with the dying military tutelary regime and, it seems, they are waiting to be buried deep down.

Coup and democracy

The coup plots that were exposed to the public in the Sledgehammer case indicate allegations of grave plots against the public, the state and the interests of the country. The prosecutors and judges who investigate and hear these allegations do not make public statements by the very nature of their offices. The government is keeping silent in order not to meddle with the functioning of the judiciary. On the other hand, the defendants, their lawyers and relatives as well as their comrades who act with a professional partisanship and the MHP and the CHP are exerting heavy pressure on the judiciary. The MHP deputy chairman depicts the recent wave of detentions under the said case as the government’s error. The CHP chairman declares that he is taking sides in the case.

It is as if the claims being heard in court are not about some members of the military attempting to commit massacres and overthrow a democratically elected government. The public is just watching what is going on patiently and they are waiting for the upcoming election. A heavy price is being paid by those who assume this heavy and controversial burden of supporting the suspects. The CHP’s and the MHP’s election claims are being crushed under the weight of the Sledgehammer case.

The ruling AK Party is preparing for another easy election victory. The CHP and the MHP are losing blood as they search for votes among the voluminous case files of the Sledgehammer case. The rival of the military tutelary system, which is in its death throes, is not the AK Party, the CHP or the MHP. It is the election ballots, or popular will. As the election nears, who can find a reasonable justification for advocating military tutelage?

The MHP is a party whose backbone is the body of people who were victimized by coups in the past. And although the CHP seems to have the same ideology as the subversive generals, they are the ones that sustained the most damage from them. How can the MHP, which has been unable to question the military attacks against the party’s headquarters in 1979, and the CHP, which still drags its feet on being a truly leftist party, carry the burden of the Sledgehammer case?

Cost of the coup

Suppose that a coup had been conducted as planned seven years ago -- i.e., that Sledgehammer had not only been planned but also implemented -- what would have happened? Shouldn’t everyone, particularly the members of the military who love their country, shiver with fear in the face of such a horrible possibility? The question is simple: Where would Turkey be?

The military and pro-coup groups

The Turkish military is the most organized and most powerful organization in the country. It has about 1 million members and state-of-the-art weaponry. Its intelligence organization, counter-intelligence units, social facilities and educational facilities are the country’s most sophisticated institutions. We are talking about a behemoth that has foundations and a huge conglomerate of companies where big sums are saved and spent.

Can a handful of prosecutors and judges and police officers wage a war against such a big power?

The defendants of the Ergenekon case base their defense on the claim that the documents submitted as evidence are forged or false. They say the documents containing coup plans, the massacre plots, conspiracies and provocations were forged later. How dare anyone? Who dare set up the huge Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) using fabricated documents? Who can provide the fine genius and mischief one needs to do so? Who?

Upon the order to arrest of 163 military officers, MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli said the government was taking revenge on the military. According to this discourse, the TSK just sat and watched this act of revenge and the prosecutors and judges are assigned to the implement this act of revenge and the government is a partner in this treason. Is that so?

Everyone meddling in this trial, including CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, who said, “Show me where this organization is so that I can join it,” must think over and over again. The court is hearing a case about an organization that is claimed to have plotted to commit murders against the public in order to pave the way for an eventual military takeover. This organization’s members are not members of the TSK or the Turkish army, but those people who abuse their duty of protecting the country in order to seize power and prepare coup plans.

The court is trying to protect the rights of the public and the citizens of this country. And these citizens will cast their votes in three months. Those who were targeted by these coup plans are the ordinary citizens who cannot assert their rights anywhere but in court. And there is the glorious TSK, which can defend the rights of its members. What about the CHP and the MHP, who lend support to the defendants? These parties are assuming the role of the former chief of General Staff, who had ordered prosecutors to “prove that this document is fake,” referring to the “Action Plan to Fight Reactionaryism” that was later found to be authentic. They are placing a heavy burden on the conscience of the prosecutors and judges who are trying to administer justice with a handful of police officers under their command. The glorious military needs the support of the opposition in order to defend its rights.

As they are bringing the generals who command a big armed force to the court, the judges are complying with their duty of protecting the rights of the public against the power of the state. This is the public political parties will appeal to and ask for support in the nearing elections. The army has cannons, rifles and everything. Aren’t the opposition parties supposed to defend the rights of the public to whom they will appeal in the elections?

The Sledgehammer case is giving the AK Party an early election victory. This is not because of the AK Party’s policies, but because the opposition parties side with subversive generals against the public. Thus, at the crossroads of democracy or coups, the CHP and the MHP have joined the ranks of the pro-coup camp and, therefore, will lose the election even before entering it.