Turkey marks year since ‘epic’ coup defeat
National holiday for day of celebration of ‘democracy’
Turkey yesterday marked one year since the defeat of the coup to oust president Recep Tayyip Erdogan with clebrations intended to showcase national unity and his grip on power in an increasingly polarised society.
The authorities have declared July 15 an annual national holiday of “democracy and unity”, billing the foiling of the coup as a historic victory for Turkish democracy.
“It’s one year since the darkest night was turned into an epic,” prime minister Binali Yildirim told a special session of parliament that started a day of celebrations intended to last until dawn.
He said the night of July 15 was a “second War of Independence” after the conflict that led to the creation of the modern Turkish state in the ruins of the Ottoman Empire in 1923.
Two hundred and 49 people, not including the plotters, were killed when a disgruntled faction in the army sent tanks into the streets and warplanes into the sky in a bid to overthrow Mr Erdogan after one-and-a-half decades in power.Thirty-five coup plotters also died.
But they were thwarted within hours as the authorities regrouped and people poured into the streets in support of Mr Erdogan, who blamed followers of his ally-turned- nemesis, the US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen.
The authorities embarked on the biggest purge in Turkey’s history, arresting 50,000 people and sacking 100,000 more. Mr Erdogan also shored up his position by winning a referendum on enhancing his powers earlier this year.
In the latest dismissals ordered hours before the commemorations were due to begin, another 7,563 police, soldiers, teachers, academics and other state employees were sacked under the state of emergency that has been in place since July 20 last year.
The scale of the purge has intensified political divisions in Turkey, with the opposition accusing the authorities of seeking to silence anyone who dares to criticise Mr Erdogan.
The celebrations come less than a week after the head of the Republican People’s Party, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, held the largest opposition rally in Turkey in years at the end of a 25-day, 425-kilometre “justice march” from Ankara to Istanbul, to protest against the detention of a CHP politician.
Turkey’s opposition put political differences aside on the night of the attempted coup. But that fell away after April 16 referendum that president Erdogan won by a narrow margin.
“Over the last year, judicial proceedings have moved outside the framework of the law,” Mr Kilicdaroglu said. “This parliament, which withstood bombs, has been rendered obsolete and its authority removed. In the past year, justice has been destroyed. Instead of rapid normalisation, a permanent state of emergency has been implemented.”
He also called for full clarity over what happened on the night of July 15, with questions still remaining over when the authorities first found out an uprising was afoot.
In the run-up to the anniversary, Turkish media has been saturated by coverage from the coup bid, with some channels showing almost constant footage of men and even mothers facing down armed soldiers and tanks in Istanbul.
Twenty-year-old Ismet Dogan, said he and his friends took to the streets of Istanbul the night of the coup after they heard the call from Mr Erdogan to defy the soldiers. He was shot in both legs by a soldier..
“My friends and I said, ‘We have one nation, if we are to die, let’s do it like men’,” he said. “Everyone who was there with me had come there to die. Nobody was afraid of death.”
The scale of yesterday’s nationwide commemorations was aimed at etching July 15, 2016 into the minds of Turks as a key date in the history of the modern state.
Giant posters designed by the presidency appeared on billboards in Istanbul showing paintings of key events of the coup night, including the surrender of the rebel soldiers. The slogan on the posters read The epic of July 15.
Mr Erdogan was at the centre of the day’s events, taking part in a people’s march on the Istanbul bridge across the Bosphorus that saw bloody fighting a year ago and has been renamed Bridge of the Martyrs.