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Following the attempted coup of July 16, the Erdogan government launched a massive wave of arrests and dismissals of public employees. The purges were not just limited to soldiers implicated in the coup attempt, but rather seemed to include an incredibly long list of perceived enemies of President Erdogan. The government arrested or dismissed from their positions some 60,000 soldiers, police, judges, Ministry of Interior employees, teachers and every university dean in the country. No sane person can believe that all these people were implicated in the coup attempt.
Many governments in the West and human rights groups had hoped for a different reaction to the coup attempt. After all, the three opposition parties in parliament condemned the coup attempt even while it was still in progress, crowds in several cities took to the streets to stop the coup, and virtually every intellectual and elite in the country publically stood by the electoral system rather than the military putschists. Many observers therefore hoped that such a show of unity in favor of democracy might be seized upon by the leadership in Ankara to reunify a fractured and weary country.
They clearly forgot the mentality of the person from whom they expected conciliatory gestures. Abdullah Gul or Ahmet Davutoglu might have seized upon such a chance to turn a new page in Turkey. They might have said “For all our citizens who sacrificed their lives for democracy on July 16, for our political rivals who nonetheless stood by us and the system we share, for the soldiers who follow orders and risk their lives for this state, let us now start anew and strengthen Turkey’s democratic institutions, let us make sure we can disagree without bloodshed, let us make sure there is a place for everyone here.” A conciliatory leader who cared about the country and its social peace might have taken heart from the unified reaction against the coup attempt and felt more secure knowing that most of the country backed the institutions of democracy.
Instead Turkey saw a reaction full of paranoia, intent on consolidating even more power in the president’s hands. Besides the purges of tens of thousands, a state of emergency was declared to give the president and “security forces” a free hand against any and all critics, real or imagined. Ankara even banned all the country’s academics from leaving the country (ah, those bloodthirsty scheming professors!).
Upon reading depressing news story after depressing news story following the failed coup, your humble columnist remarked to friends: “Purges in the tens of thousands, controlled media, great leader cult, reinstating the death penalty. Should we start calling this ‘Turkey's cultural revolution’? How long before the full brunt of the frenzied mob is unleashed upon the bourgeois intellectual and professional class (referred to as ‘Gulenists’ and ‘white Turks’)?” Apparently not very long. Among other events, crowds of “government supporters” reportedly looted a Gulen-linked bookstore in Malatya, people in Alevi and secular neighborhoods Istanbul were attacked by crowds, Syrian refugees were threatened by mobs. These were perhaps the same government supporters who, while answering the call to take to the streets July 16 and afterwards, chanted religious phrases rather than pro-democracy slogans. Perhaps this was never about democracy for such people, but rather good old fashioned “us versus them” identity politics.
As for the other crackdown in the southeast, that continues apace as well. Kurdish towns remain encircled by the military and police, both of which now enjoy impunity in their actions towards civilians thanks to new legislation passed that removes judicial oversight over their actions. Soldiers accused of crimes against civilians can only be tried by their own military courts now, and only if the relevant officers in the military consent to such a charade. Kurdish civilians killed or disappeared have even less recourse to legal redress as a result.
As for the military charged with prosecuting this war in the Kurdish regions, they now do so with much fewer capable officers to lead them. According to credible human rights reports from Amnesty International, thousands of coup-implicated soldiers and officers are now being hogtied nearly naked, starved, tortured and even raped by the governments more loyal servants.
Perhaps apologists for the current regime will at least try to spin this in a positive light. They could say “See, Turkish state authorities do not discriminate! We do this to everyone, not just the Kurds! Equality has improved in Turkey thanks to our dear leader! It would be even better if we had a presidential system where his authority was more legal!" For the great many who opposed the foiled military coup but likewise oppose the counter-coup, such dark humor may be fitting for even darker days ahead.
David Romano has been a Rudaw columnist since 2010. He holds the Thomas G. Strong Professor of Middle East Politics at Missouri State University and is the author of numerous publications on the Kurds and the Middle East.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rudaw.
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