PM Erdoğan vows to settle accounts with Feb. 28 postmodern coup

“Nobody should be concerned. This nation is confronting Feb. 28 and it will continue to do so. A full account of the price the events of Feb. 28 made this country, this nation, our democracy and our economy pay is being made and it will continue to be made,” Erdoğan said on Tuesday on the 15th anniversary of the 1997 intervention.

He added that just as the trial of the perpetrators of the Sept. 12, 1980 military coup became possible thanks to a referendum in 2010, the instigators of the Feb. 28 coup will be pursued to the full extent of the law.

Last week, prosecutors summoned four civil servants from the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) to testify as part of a probe into the Feb. 28 intervention. The civil servants were among the attendees at West Study Group (BÇG) meetings held by the General Staff to brief judges and prosecutors on “reactionaryism” during the build-up to Feb. 28. The Ankara deputy chief prosecutor's office is conducting the probe after criminal complaints were filed against the perpetrators of this intervention.

Erdoğan also said history will not forgive those behind the Feb. 28 intervention, which he said went down in history as a black stain on Turkish democracy.

“History will not forgive the architects of Feb. 28 even if 1,000 years pass,” he said. Erdoğan also noted that those who collaborated with the perpetrators of the post-modern coup, including some civil society groups and media outlets, will not be forgiven either.

With his remarks about “1,000 years,” the prime minister was openly referring to the statements of former Chief of General Staff Gen. Hüseyin Kıvrıkoğlu, who once said, “The Feb. 28 process will last a thousand years,” talking about the impact of Feb. 28 on society. “This nation is now settling accounts with Feb. 28 and will continue to do so,” he added.

Addressing Justice and Development Party (AK Party) deputies weeks after undergoing a second operation, Erdoğan said the Feb. 28 coup directly targeted the nation. “Feb. 28 went down in our democratic history as a black stain and will be remembered as a democratic scandal, a post-modern intervention. Feb. 28 is a continuation of [the] May 27 [1960 coup d'état], [the Sept. 12 [1980 coup]. The methods used during Feb. 28 were different, but the nation was directly targeted on Feb. 28 as well, just like in others [coups], and a government that came to power through elections was dismissed,” he said.

A coalition government led by now-defunct conservative party the Welfare Party (RP) was forced to step down by the military on Feb. 28, 1997. Not only were fatal blows dealt to fundamental rights and freedoms after the coup, but democracy and the rule of law were also suspended. The coup introduced a series of harsh restrictions on religious life, with an unofficial but widely practiced ban on the use of the Islamic headscarf in universities.

The National Security Council (MGK) made several decisions during a meeting on Feb. 28, 1997 and presented them to then-Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan for approval. Erbakan was forced to sign the decisions. He subsequently resigned, handing over the Prime Ministry to his coalition partner, Tansu Çiller.

“As the victims of Feb. 28, we are proudly standing here,” Erdoğan said. The prime minister was an RP member and the mayor of İstanbul when the intervention took place.

Erdoğan said Feb. 28 left huge wreckage behind and severely damaged the county's democracy and economy, making the people of this country poorer.

“Hundreds of people were victimized due to their views or appearance. A witch-hunt was made in the bureaucracy, individuals were sacked or removed from their jobs or sent into exile due on illegitimate grounds, they were categorized [according to their religious or ideological beliefs], and the feelings of pious circles were aggressively attacked from TV screens and newspaper pages,” said Erdoğan.

During the Feb. 28 process, some media outlets launched a propaganda campaign to pump fears of increasing “religious fundamentalism” in the country and an illegal group established within the military known as the West Study Group (BÇG) kept tabs on politicians, intellectuals, soldiers and bureaucrats according to their religious and ideological backgrounds.

Erdoğan also directed criticism at the Republican People's Party (CHP), which he said lacked democratic credentials and played a role in the Feb. 28 intervention.

He said the perpetrators of Feb. 28 have a distorted 150-year-old mentality that does not avoid violating the nation's will when it feels its interests threatened, and the CHP has such a mentality.

“The CHP remembers democracy at its party congresses for the favor of some,” Erdoğan said, adding that he is very pleased to have a political rival like CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu who he said has lost all his credibility in the eyes of the nation.

‘Isolated’ slogans at Khojaly rally

Erdoğan also touched on a debate over certain slogans and posters that cast a shadow over a weekend rally in İstanbul to commemorate victims of a 1992 massacre in the Azerbaijani village of Khojaly.

Nationalist participants took the opportunity to denounce previous demonstrations held in protest of the 2007 killing of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, where demonstrators chanted slogans such as “We are all Armenians” in show of solidarity for Turkey's tiny Armenian minority. At the İstanbul rally on Sunday, some posters read: “You are all Armenians, you are all bastards.”

Erdoğan said his government was determined to keep the memory of the Khojaly Massacre by Armenian forces alive, calling controversial posters “isolated.” “The fact that there were some isolated placards at the rally cannot overshadow solidarity over Khojaly. We will not forget the Khojaly Massacre and will not let it be forgotten,” Erdoğan said. “We will continue to mourn the innocent lives.”