The traumatic legacy of the July 15 2016, the so-called coup attempt - Un-abridged

Last three years have left deep wounds in the psyche of the Turkish society 

15 July 2106 was one of the most significant and traumatic days of modern Turkish history. On a summer Friday evening, when millions of Istanbul residents were out on the streets welcoming the weekend, a group of soldiers appeared near the bridge that connects two sides of Istanbul across the Bosphorus. 

People fist could not comprehend what was happening. Most people though it was either some kind of a military exercise or the Army was responding to some sort of a terror threat. But later on soldiers were saying that it was actually a “coup”. 

People were puzzled. Because Turkish army has done coups before to overthrow governments but they never started like a weekend party on a Friday night during peak hour in a city with over 15 million people. Nevertheless, there were the soldiers in their uniforms claiming to take over the government. Soon after fighter jets started flying low over the city creating fearsome noises. 

If this was a military coup, which is supposed to be against elected government, why didn’t the soldiers rather go after government figures like the President, PM, ministers, members of the parliament instead of scaring the ordinary people whose support would be needed in the aftermath of the coup? Strangely these so called coup plotters didn’t arrest a single politician. One unit was sent to capture the President who was on holiday and they did not event get there in time. What kind of a coup was it then? 

It started like this. The rest was a million unresolved questions. Why was the first thing soldiers did was to block a bridge in one direction during peak hour? What did they aim to achieve by keeping people stranded on the roads instead of asking everyone to go home and declaring a curfew? Why did the President only heard about the coup attempt from his “brother-in-law” and not from Intelligence Chief who was tipped off early afternoon? Why didn’t the Chief of the army issue an order to all units not to leave their barracks before anything began as well as issuing a flight ban on the Air Force jets assuming he was not involved as he claims? Why did some very senior Generals chose to go to a “wedding” despite hearing that there was going to be a coup attempt and got taken hostage at the wedding venue? Why did the army and intelligence chiefs never testified at the commission of enquiry at the parliament? Why was the commission not allowed to do its work independently and was abruptly concluded when President said what they did was sufficient? Why was the Army chief not held accountable despite failing to exert his authority on his army? While anyone in the army would be held accountable for anything that goes wrong in his unit and face consequences, the army chief was left at his post and later on appointed as the defence minister in the current government. WHY? The intelligence chief who failed to inform the President of the attempt and possibly to stop killing of 252 people is still in his post. Why was the first thing president did was to fire thousands of judges and prosecutors? And how did they manage to identify so many thousands of people who are supposedly linked with the coup platters? Almost ¾ of the Generals in the Army were dismissed and most are jailed for being part of the network accused of plotting the coup. Imagine a group, which controls ¾ of the Generals fails to do a coup? So many officers who ordered their units to remain in their barracks and did not to take part in the attempt have been dismissed and jailed later on. WHY? Why did the soldiers bomb Police special force unit, parliament and fired at civilians? When you lean back and have a good look at the whole thing, the so-called coup plotters did everything that they shouldn’t have done? They should have attempted to win the people, police and other groups and institutions so they establish their rule as smoothly as possible when they take over. But they did things almost as if they wanted people to hate them! 

It is possible to add many other questions and illogical events. I am sure they will offer explanations. But the short of it is that the regime has changed in Turkey. The country went to a referendum under the state of emergency to change the system to a Turkish style executive presidential system. 

Irrespective of all these details and irrespective of what you believe in, there is one thing certain is that what happened from 16 July 2016 onwards has been a humanitarian tragedy. 

Guilt by association has become the order of the day. Billions of Dollars of wealth seized, hundreds of thousands have been investigated for terrorism charges, tens of thousands of people including thousands of women and hundreds of babies are still in jail. Many lives are lost in prisons or outside as a result of trauma related illnesses. Innumerable families are broken; children are growing without fathers and/or mothers. 

Which legal, moral, religious, traditional norm or system can justify jailing thousands of women with hundreds of babies, arresting the wife when they cannot find the husband? Yes these happened and are still happenings, Tens of people have been kidnapped by people claiming they are police and they been missing for months. There is strong suspicion that they are being tortured and some might have even died. 

Social fabric of the Turkish society has been damaged very very badly. There will have to be process of reconciliation but how that can happen is beyond imagination. The scars caused by the government’s irresponsible demonization are still very fresh and people don’t seem to be ready to sit and talk.