Democracy under threat after failed coup
The swiftness with which Ankara has reacted to the failed coup in Turkey suggests mala fide intentions
The failed military coup in Turkey has been widely hailed as a triumph of democracy. The courage that thousands of Turks have shown to thwart an effort by a section of the armed forces to oust a democratically elected government and president is commendable. Has their protection protected the democratic values in the country? The answer is “no”.
Though this is not to suggest that the situation would have been better otherwise, there is no doubt that the survival of the Erdogan government has led to a further deterioration of democracy, human rights and the rule of law.
About 15,200 education ministry employees, 8,000 policemen, 3,000 judges, 3,500 soldiers, and 100 generals and admirals have been sacked or detained within a few days on charges of plotting the coup.
This swiftness suggests mala fide intentions. If the government is competent enough to identify such a large number of plotters within days, how did it have no idea of their planning? Or if it knew that a coup was being planned, why was no action taken to pre-empt it?
This is not the first time the Turkish government is purging officials of their positions. Over the past three years, thousands of government officials have been relieved of their duties and arrested on charges of being members or sympathisers of what the government calls a “parallel state” (the name it has given to the Gulen movement).
Twenty independent news websites have also been shut down in the immediate aftermath of the coup attempt. It has banned dozens of online portals, including social media websites like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube many times in the past.
Now with this failed coup attempt, Ankara is trying to further muzzle opposing voices. Following the declaration of a state of Emergency, 15 universities, 934 schools, 104 foundations, 109 dormitories, 35 hospitals, 1,125 associations and 19 unions have been shut down. The government is also mulling reintroducing the death penalty in the country.
The properties of the sympathisers of the Gulen movement have been vandalised. All of these are happening despite the leader of the movement, Fethullah Gulen, condemning the coup attempt and rejecting the government’s accusation. The government has produced no hard evidence yet to corroborate its allegations. Gulen is a Turkish Islamic scholar living in the US since 1999.
Ankara started openly targeting him and his sympathisers since a huge corruption scandal implicating President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s inner circle became public in 2013.
The government had then accused Gulen’s supporters in the judiciary and police of attempting a “judicial coup” and now it is accusing them of attempting a military coup. However, in both the cases the government’s allegations have hardly stood scrutiny.