Vol. 80/No. 28 August 1, 2016
(front page)
After failed coup, Turkish gov’t launches crackdown
The coup by a small group within the armed forces was defeated in 24 hours with the aid of senior military and police commanders and thousands of supporters who responded to calls from mosques to take to the streets. All opposition political parties condemned it, including the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), a target of vicious repression by Erdogan’s government. “Coups have never supported or endorsed democracy in Turkey,” said HDP Co-chair Selahattin Demirtas.
Coup leaders charged that under Erdogan Turkey “has become an autocracy based on fear” and declared a nationwide curfew. In the evening soldiers occupied some buildings in Istanbul, the largest city, and the capital Ankara. Jets bombed parliament and helicopters fired on street crowds and police stations. Police and civilians confronted the soldiers, most of whom surrendered by the morning. The government reported 232 killed, including 145 civilians and 60 cops.
A coal miner in the town of Soma told the Militant by phone that appeals over mosque loudspeakers urged residents to rally in the town square. While miners who support Erdogan turned out, he said, others were apprehensive that the government would react with repression. Another unionist told the Militant that some Erdogan supporters attacked neighborhoods populated by Alevis, a branch of Shiite Islam.
Erdogan immediately blamed the coup on supporters of Fethullah Gulen, his former ally. The Turkish government is demanding the extradition of Gulen, a Sunni Muslim cleric now living in the United States. Gulen denied any involvement in the coup.
Gen. Akin Ozturk, a former air force commander the government claims planned the coup, and 26 other generals and admirals were charged with treason July 18. Erdogan said coup supporters “will pay a heavy price,” possibly including restoring the death penalty.
Also arrested was the commander of Turkey’s Incirlik Air Base, which hosts NATO and U.S. troops, as well as the largest U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile in Europe. For 24 hours, Turkish officials closed the air space around the base and shut off the electricity. The base plays a central role in U.S. air operations in Iraq and Syria. Turkish officials said the commander provided refueling for fighter planes used in the coup.
Gulen’s movement in Turkey — with a network of schools and charities — says that it supports secular democracy and preaches toleration as part of Islam. After Gulen and Erdogan’s Sunni Islamist-based Justice and Development Party had a falling out in 2013, Erdogan began purging Gulen supporters in the military, police and other state institutions.
Erdogan announced July 17 he would now “clean all state institutions of the virus,” a threat aimed at anyone opposing his rule. By July 19, 50,000 had been fired, including 9,000 cops, 6,000 military personnel, 3,000 judges, 30 provincial governors and thousands of civil servants and teachers. Many have been detained.
Strong president
Erdogan came to power as prime minister in 2003 and was elected president in 2014, a previously ceremonial post he has transformed into a strong executive role. Especially in the last few years he has taken over control of news media that has criticized him and clamped down on democratic rights.In July 2015, Erdogan cancelled a cease-fire with the Kurdistan Workers Party signed two years earlier and unleashed a military offensive against the oppressed Kurdish population throughout the southeast.
A central goal of Erdogan was his bid to join the European Union and other steps to assert Turkey as a Mideast power, projecting his government as a counterweight to Iran’s Shia Muslim rulers. He backed some groups fighting the Bashar al-Assad dictatorship, heavily based on the Shiite minority in Syria, and turned a blind eye to Sunni Islamist groups like Islamic State, crossing the border to Syria.
But the European imperialist powers were never going to let Turkey into the EU. Ankara found itself sidelined when Washington signed a nuclear accord with Iran in July 2015 as part of a deal to win Tehran’s help to stabilize the Middle East, especially in Syria and Iraq, and increased its collaboration with Moscow.
Seeking to break out of its isolation, the Erdogan government made a sharp about-face in foreign policy.
On June 27 Erdogan apologized to Moscow for shooting down a Russian plane over Turkey’s border with Syria last November. On June 30 Moscow lifted the economic sanctions it had imposed in retaliation.
The Turkish and Israeli governments announced June 27 they were restoring diplomatic ties. The two broke off relations in 2010 after Israeli commandos stormed a Turkish passenger ship that was trying to break Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip, killing nine.
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