A year after failed coup, Turkey still divided as the crackdown continues
Victims will be remembered as opposition speaks out
Gonul Acu was stunned when her husband Veli, an aid worker at the United Nations World Food Program, called last week to say authorities arrested him for allegedly being a terrorist spy.
“Veli is a person who has never touched a gun,” said Gonul, 31, also an aid worker and five months pregnant. “He is not a terrorist. He is not aiding anyone. He has simply worked for human rights.”
A year ago this weekend, the Acus were among the majority of Turks who rallied around the government for breaking up a failed coup by a rogue faction of the military that left 249 dead and hundreds more injured.
Now they are among tens of thousands of citizens targeted by a crackdown that has resulted in the arrests of more than 100,000 people, curbs on political freedoms and a country split between supporters and opponents of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
On Saturday, the country will commemorate the victims in ceremonies across Turkey. Government officials this week have been visiting cemeteries of the victims they call “martyrs.”
Critics of the government also will remember the hundreds of thousands of academics, journalists, members of the judiciary and military who have been jailed, lost their jobs and live in fear of being arrested like Veli Acu, 29.
“They are separating people into groups of us vs. them,” said Murat Ozer, a civil servant who was suspended from his job in Izmir. “Many people can’t afford a living after they are fired.”
About 50,000 remain jailed — accused of being militant Kurdish separatists or followers of cleric Fethullah Gulen, a one-time Erdogan ally whom the government now alleges was the mastermind of the coup attempt. Gulen, 76, who is in exile in Pennsylvania, denies involvement in the coup.
Meanwhile, Turks narrowly voted to give sweeping powers to Erdogan and change their government from a parliamentary to a presidential system in an April referendum.
After his victory, Erdogan extended a state of emergency the government had imposed to allow raids and arrests to continue.
The government said the arrests are necessary for Turkey’s national security. Erdogan supporter Yusuf Koyuncu, 54, an interior designer, agrees. He said the president’s political party has made him a proud Turk in the 15 years it has been in power.
“This government wants the best for Turkey,” he said.
Yunus Emre, a professor at Istanbul Kultur University, said the referendum united the opposition.
“There were two political camps in Turkey: On the one hand, a powerful and solid ruling party which had nearly 50% of the total votes, and on the other, a divided and non-influential opposition,” he said. “This year, the opposition movement united.”
Such growing opposition offers little comfort for Gonul Acu.
“I’m not going to cry, and I haven’t cried,” she said. “When he comes out (of jail), I’m going to cry tears of joy.”
“They are separating people into groups of us vs. them. Many people can’t afford a living after they are fired.” Murat Ozer on Turkey’s crackdown