How else are we to make sense of a recent pronouncement by Deniz Baykal, leader of Turkey's main opposition, that nearly 30 years on the time has come for the nation to settle accounts with the leaders of the Sept. 12, 1980 military coup?For a start, the pronouncement is a clever way for his Republican People's Party (CHP) to distance itself from the furor over a much fresher military political maneuver. It has been over a fortnight since the Taraf newspaper leaked details of a black ops “action plan” to discredit both the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and the religious congregation loyal to Fethullah Gülen. The revelation has dominated the news since, with debates raging over whether the documents published by the independent-minded daily were genuine, and, if so, admissible in court. The military prosecutors just finished their own investigation and, in a decision that has convinced few of their independence, say there is no case to answer. However, no one expects the tide of indignation to recede.
A key question, little asked, is how far along the road the plan was. Contingency for everything is what the military does best, and almost certainly on a shelf somewhere in Ankara is a scheme to seize the ice floes of Antarctica. Turkish soldiers clearly rate the nation's politicians as a greater threat than penguins and no doubt engage their finest minds to draw up contingency schemes to bring a government down. The challenge is complicated by great reluctance to use the “nuclear option” -- an unfashionable military putsch. We saw this in the famous 1997 “post-modern” coup, where the chiefs of staff did not send tanks to grab the radio stations but organized press conferences to help push the government coalition over the edge. It wasn't very democratic, but it was cleverly done. Or so it seemed at the time. Though the military pulled the Welfare Party (RP) from office, they opened the way to the formation of its far cannier successor.
Up until now, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's popularity has more than rebounded from juridical and extra-legal attempts to bring himself and his party down. As İstanbul's mayor, he was jailed for inciting religious hatred and went on to become prime minister. Attempts also failed to scare off the AK Party from choosing one of their own, Abdullah Gül, as president. The anti-government, pro-Republican Rallies of 2007 had the not-so-secret blessing of the chiefs of general staff but only resulted in the AK Party being re-elected with an even greater majority. Mr. Baykal and his Republican People's Party (CHP) was bitterly attacked for appearing to support these crypto-military interventions, and there were even appeals to the Socialist International to show the CHP the door.
At least Mr. Baykal has decided to change tack. I don't suppose he genuinely expects the courts to haul the nearly 92-year-old leader of Turkey's last coup, Gen. Kenan Evren, in irons before the judge. The pro-government press accuses Mr. Baykal of trying to stir up trouble between the AK Party and the military. (If there's one thing the electorate hates more than the army provoking the politicians, it's the politicians provoking the army.) Mr. Erdoğan accuses Mr. Baykal of being insincere -- but that's a bit like accusing him of being a politician. What Mr. Baykal is doing is reminding a youthful Turkish public opinion of ancient history. The AK Party was not the first to rub the military the wrong way and that when he was helping to run the country back in the 1970s, the generals shut down his party, detained his generation of politicians and tried to ban him from ever standing again.
However, Mr. Baykal's attempts to identify himself with the victims of Sept. 12 do not nearly go far enough. The lasting legacy of that coup was the 1982 Constitution, a document much denigrated for the way it allowed an unelected bureaucracy to override individual liberties and for the way it embodied a mistrust of civil institutions. Yet, the CHP has consistently resisted calls to amend or replace that Constitution with one more suited to the aspirations of a European Union applicant. What better way for Turkey to administer much-needed shock therapy to the country's moribund negotiations with Brussels or restore trust in government institutions than an all party-consensus to eliminate this vestige of martial rule?
Benzer Haberler 
