By Nancy Webster Kaya
I am an American proudly married to a Turk. I
have come to love Turkey as my second home and have been accepted with open
arms by my in-laws. In fact, my dear mother-in-law, who is 92 years young,
renamed me Gulten, meaning rose. I have had the privilege of visiting many
parts of Turkey and hoped to visit much more. Eventually, my husband and I had
planned on living part of the year on the Aegean coast.
All of that changed on Friday, July 15, 2016.
My heart grieves for Turkey, for all my relatives and my friends. Sadly, I
believe (but, hope that I am wrong) that the 90+ year secular democracy founded
by Ataturk has seen the shining light go out. I grieve for my husband and my
dear friends here in America, because, to them, they feel as though they have
lost their homeland.
What really happened? As of today, Sunday,
the facts are still trickling out. But, I must go back to Friday and share our
thoughts and feelings as the day unfolded. When the news broke on CNN, my
husband and I looked at each other in complete shock. We immediately went
online – my husband to all his Turkish websites and news outlets and me to
Facebook.
We both had initial high hopes that this was
a real coup and that Erdogan would be removed from power and a new government
formed. When Ataturk founded the Republic of Turkey in 1923, a provision was
added into the constitution that if ever a government in power veered away from
secular democracy, the military had the power to remove and replace that
government. In the past 90 years it has been called into play only 4 times.
As the afternoon progressed into evening,
things didn’t seem right. Where was Erdogan? Why hadn’t he been taken into custody?
Then, there came a strange Facetime message from Erdogan calling for all his
followers to go into the streets and fight the coup. From there things turned
very, very bad. People were being shot, many explosions, and there was utter
chaos in both Istanbul and in Ankara. Both sides claimed they had control of
the country.
The next major event was Erdogan landing at
Istanbul Airport to a very large, cheering crowd. He espoused that the
government was fully in control and that those who perpetrated the coup would
be severely punished. My husband and I went to bed
with heavy hearts, not knowing what we would wake up to. Just how could
a coup fail so miserably and so quickly?
A posting by a Turkish friend, TC Mi Ne Oz.
“Turkish Military does not fail if they want to
do a coup. They are experienced. Turkish Military's purpose to protect and
defend Turkish Republic's sovereignty. This so
called "coup attempt" nothing to do with our military. Those small
amount of soldiers did not even know why they told to go to that bridge. Erdogan
has been doing a coup since he became president. He took Turkey backwards at
least 30 years.
This is a staged
civil coup done by him to gain even more power and excuse to continue to change
the constitution and arrest the rest of the military officials to stay in the
power. Because Turkish military is the only power left standing in his way. A
very dirty game has been played. R.I.P. innocent people who got killed by blood
thirsty religious freaks.”
By Saturday evening the news came in that there were ongoing mass arrests totaling over 2,000. The Erdogan Government security agencies have been arresting a high number of judges, officers, soldiers, bureaucrats, across the 81 provinces in the last hours. Then, we began to hear rumors that it was possibly Fethullah Gulen that was behind the failed coup.
As of today, Sunday, the number of arrested had increased to over 6,000. Their fate? Unknown. The latest update on who was possibly behind the coup came in an article in the Cumhuriyet. A friend translated for me.
“Apparently there is
evidence that indicates police were about to conduct a raid on cemaat (Gulen) members
in the military on the morning of July 16. Therefore, cemaat (Gulen) members in
the army decided - hastily - to initiate a coup on the 15th as a last ditch
effort. Army is the only stronghold left for cemaat, Fethullah did not want to
lose it. But the rushed effort had planning problems, as well as a lack of
support in the upper echelon in the Armed Forces.
This required them to
take control of the Chief of Staff and his entourage first, before chasing AKP
guys down. In the interim, AKP had the opportunity to bail and cover, and
called people out on the streets. This proved to be a major turning point in
events, leading to a failure. Lack of support in the military as well as press
and political establishment also hurt the coup attempt. This is why it looks
like a rookie effort.”
In a rare interview, Fethullah Gülen, who is in exile in the US, denied all claims he was behind the coup and instead made the counter-claim that Turkey’s president had orchestrated the revolt. He told The Guardian: ‘I don’t believe that the world believes the accusations made by President Erdoğan.’”
Was it Erdogan? Was
it Gulen? If it was Gulen, then that would indicate the CIA was ultimately
behind it, since they have been protecting him here in the US for many years. What
will happen going forward? Will Erdogan succeed in getting the number of votes
to change the constitution making him president for life? What will happen to
democracy? Human rights? What will happen to all those arrested? What will
happen to the US/Turkey relations? There are just too many questions no one yet
has the answers to.