This meeting will be a turning point in Turkey’s democratic history. If we take May 27, 1960 as a starting point, this country has been under military tutelage for half a century. Although the national will manifests itself in elections, military bureaucracy imprisons governments to a defined area. It maintains control over everything with safety valves in the judiciary, the university system, the media and semiofficial civil society organizations.
This system thrives on the pro-junta mentality of İttihat ve Terakki (the Committee of Union and Progress). It is not difficult to understand the challenging situation that governments, especially prime ministers, face, the kinds of problems they’re overwhelmed by and how their prides are bruised in this system.
They are obliged to bow down to those who get their strength from the national will but keep a tight hold on power. As a matter of fact, the objective of hanging prime ministers and state ministers at the gallows after the 1960 coup was to intimidate and put moral pressure on subsequent parliament deputies, cabinet members and prime ministers. In other words, it was to show that if anyone dares disobey them, they would suffer the same fate.
Relying on the nation’s heart, two men did not allow this threat to scare them. One was Turgut Özal and the other is Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The first prime minister to bring down the guard of junta supporters was the late Özal. My personal belief is that Erdoğan initially had trust in promises that were made to him and wanted to believe in the people who made these promises. But over time, he started to question their sincerity in believing in democracy. Especially after the discovery of an action plan to end the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and the Gülen movement, he realized that junta supporters were incorrigible. Now we have a prime minister that is done listening to fairytales.
Junta supporters also have a better understanding of Erdoğan now. We have documentation of that in our hands as well. In June the Taraf daily did a great service to democratization by revealing a plan prepared at the General Staff headquarters.
Taraf got a hold of a document detailing how the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) were drawn into politics by junta supporters and how democracy would be interrupted according to modern coup conditions.
Three days ago, the Radikal daily printed a new five-paged document dated September 2007 that assesses the plan mentioned above. The document was prepared by Nusret Taşdeler, a current War Academy Commander who was promoted to full general in August. The document, which assesses the July 22, 2007 general elections, reads: “Despite all our efforts to persuade the prime minister, Abdullah Gül was elected president. It is evident that the AKP continues to follow its own path, disregarding the TSK’s sensitivity and objections to basic issues. It is evident from the current point that the government will not make many concessions from its stance and will push the limits to meet its constituents’ expectations.”
So this is the situation before us. According to those at the General Staff headquarters, the prime minister is not listening to the military’s preferences and is pushing the limits. Now we have a critical situation in front us that cannot be hidden, glossed over or made forgotten. A pro-junta group within the TSK is betraying democracy. Impudently, callously and audaciously they are saying, “This country is our business.”
The Turkish government, Parliament, the republic and democracy cannot coexist with this ongoing threat. There is only one option in dealing with it. The TSK, the most important institution in the eyes of the people, must be salvaged from junta supporters, who have gotten away with not being held accountable for the past 50 years. But they have reached the end of the road. Until they leave, Turkey cannot enter a smooth and straight path.
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