Erdogan and Gulen
Photo: AP, Reuters
Erdogan's primary suspect
Op-ed: Once former allies, President Erdogan and is blaming US based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen for orchestrating a failed coup against him. While some of those involved in the coup do have ties to Gulen, will Erdogan use this coup as a pretense for further curbing freedoms in Turkey?
Will this failed military coup attempt wash away all the crumbling blocs built by the government against freedom of media, fairness of the judiciary, and accountability of those in charge that basically anchors the corner stones of a functioning democracy? That seems to be the exact expectation of the government in place in the name of democracy. The irony is deep and puzzling. Here is why:
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan blames the Turkish born US based Sunni religious cleric Fethullah Gulen’s group as being behind Friday's failed military coup attempt. “I am addressing those in Pennsylvania,” he said, in an apparent reference to where Gulen is living in the US. “The betrayal you have shown to this nation and to this community, that is enough. If you have the courage, come back to your country.”
Erdogan had been in a marriage of convenience with the Gulen movement to consolidate power since he came to power fourteen years ago, but the partners fell out during the corruption scandal of December 2013. Since then, Erdogan has declared the Gulen movement a terrorist organization and announced an outright war against the group. "Since 2004, Erdogan helped the Gulenists to enter the military ... plenty entered the war academy," a retired military intelligence officer told Yedioth Ahronoth, speaking on condition of anonymity. "I saw the list (of people) that carried the (attempted) coup and the appointees for taking power across the country. They are all Gulenists." To this retired intelligence officer, this is the reason why Chief of General Staff Hulusi Akar and other force commanders’ were easily taken hostage as these Gulenists are now well embedded in the military chain of command.
Fethullah Gulen and President Erdogan (Photo: AP, Reuters)
Erdogan himself pointed out that these Gulenists now seem to be fighting for their lives in the state institutions. The Supreme Military Council (YAS) was scheduled to meet to make the next round of appointments in two weeks, and they were already preparing either to force the Gulenists to retire or oust them. With this bloody scandal, they will only help to intensify and speed up that process.
Yet, when Erdogan and the Gulenists were partners, they orchestrated a legal case against hundreds of active and retired military personnel accusing them for planning a military coup to overthrow the Islamist based government. They nicknamed the case "Sledgehammer." While the courts acquitted all the charged military personnel after the breakthrough of the 2013 corruption scandal, and admitted that the accusations were based on forged documents, the Sledgehammer case detailed plans to bomb two Istanbul mosques and Ataturk’s mausoleum. The military did not do it then or today, but the Gulenist establishment did indeed bomb the Turkish parliament and the Bosporus three times on Friday night.
A military officer who was acquitted of these allegations said on condition of anonymity that the courts had actually collected critical information about the Gulenist establishment in state institutions. He points to an Izmir penal code decision from last week ordering the arrest of 17 military personnel for their role in planting forged evidence in these cases. "It would have took us couple of years to fight against these Gulenists through the judiciary, now they brought themselves out into broad day light. This is the only good side to this bizarre set of events from Friday night," he said.
Erdogan was on vacation in Marmaris when this all happened, but he flew back to Istanbul Ataturk airport soon after. He was greeted outside the airport as a hero. The military intelligence officer and other sources said that this coup attempt will help Erdogan boost his campaign to change the constitution and change the country's governance from a parliamentary system to a presidential one. Democracy has no name in this game plan.
