Feb 28 neither modern nor post-modern coup: Karadayı

Göksel Bozkurt
Hürriyet Daily News

---

İsmail Hakkı Karadayı, who was the chief of the General Staff during the so-called “post-modern” coup that forced the resignation of Turkey’s first Islamist prime minister in 1997, said that Feb. 28 process was “neither coup nor post-modern coup but an initiative within the limits of law,” the Hürriyet the Daily News has learned.

“[Feb. 28 process] was neither coup nor post-modern coup. This was the result of mistakes that were made at the time. Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan’s statement of ‘Will this big transformation be bloody or bloodless?’ terror activities of Hezbollah, Aczmendi’s (an extremist Islamic group) march, anti-secular activities put Turkey into trouble. Government did not take necessary measures against all of those. Feb. 28 was an initiative within the limits of law,” Karadayı reportedly told Parliament’s Coup Inquiry Commission members.

The commission heard former Interior Minister Meral Akşener and Karadayı yesterday at Parliament’s office of Dolmabahçe Palace in İstanbul.

Akşener reportedly said that capital holders provoked the military for the post-modern coup, and they achieved a “short-term success.” Karadayı, for his part, asserted that there were no kinds of military intervention during the Feb. 28 process. He argued that rolling of tanks in the streets of Sincan district of Ankara in 1997 following an Islamic gathering organized by the local municipality was a “routine activity,” claiming that the West Working Group (BÇG), a group legally formed within the General Staff to fight against religious fundamentalism, was never existed.

The 1997 military memorandum refers to the decisions issued by Turkish military leaders at an National Security Council (MGK) meeting on Feb. 28, 1997, which initiated the Feb. 28 process that precipitated the resignation of former Prime Minister Erbakan of the Welfare Party and the end of his coalition government. Because the Erbakan government was forced out without the dissolution of Parliament or suspension of the Constitution, the event has been labeled a “postmodern coup” by members of the military who were involved in the process.

In the meantime, former head of the Higher Education Board (YÖK) Kemal Gürüz was arrested yesterday as part of the ongoing prosecution over the Feb. 28 probe.
(Göksel Bozkurt/Hürriyet Daily News)

Turkish rescue plane also attacked by Syria

Serkan Demirtaş
Hürriyet Daily News

Al-Assad forces fired on a Turkish-flagged search and rescue plane which rushed into Syrian airspace to locate the downed Turkish jet and its two missing pilots, Western diplomats reveal to Hürriyet Daily News

Syrian security forces fired on a Turkish-flagged search and rescue plane which rushed into Syrian airspace to locate the downed Turkish F4 jet and its two missing pilots June 22, the Hürriyet Daily News has learned from Western diplomatic sources.

“[In addition to] what we have seen in the media, we have been informed that Syrian forces opened fire on another Turkish plane [which had come to the region] as part of the search and rescue operation,” sources told the Daily News on the condition of anonymity.

This information was shared with the ambassadors and defense attachés of the Arab League, European Union and NATO countries during a briefing at the Foreign Ministry yesterday. The Turkish search and rescue plane immediately left Syrian airspace after the shots. Local eyewitnesses reported a second plane leaving the same region over the Mediterranean Sea the afternoon of June 22, which could possibly be this Turkish search and rescue plane. Amid sound and fury over the shooting down of the Turkish jet, there was also another row between Turkey and Syria on the coordination of the search and rescue operation. The Syrian side offered to conduct a joint operation but attached certain conditions.

One of the conditions was that Syria wanted to seize the Turkish jet and take the Turkish pilots for the completion of necessary procedures as they had been in Syrian territorial waters. The Turkish side strongly rejected the idea and informed Syrian forces that Turkey would carry out its own search and rescue operations and would not leave its pilots and jet in the hands of Syria.

For this reason Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu denied that there was a joint search and rescue operation with Syria in his remarks yesterday. “This cannot be described as a joint operation. We are in coordination with the Syrians as this operation is being carried out in their territorial waters,” Davutoğlu said. The search and rescue operation is expected to end tomorrow.

In the same briefing, Turkey told foreign ambassadors that Syrian air forces had violated the Turkish border five times in recent months but had not been intercepted as these had not been considered “hostile” moves. The Turkish side implemented rules of engagement in these cases but did not respond to them in the way Syria did to the Turkish jet.

---

Searches go on for hit jet

---

ANKARA
Turkey sent additional vessels to the eastern Mediterranean after the wreckage of the downed jet was identified at a depth of 1,300 meters in the Mediterranean Sea. “Our priority is to save our pilots. We have sent another search and rescue vessel to the area [where] we believe our jet fell..The sea depth is around 1,300 meters in the region” Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said and requested steadiness from the families of the two pilots. The missing pilots are Capt. Gökhan Ertan and Lt. Hüseyin Aksoy. Turkish naval and air forces have been carrying out search and rescue operations since late Friday but no wreckage of the plane or pilots could be found. A vessel equipped with the technology necessary for a more detailed search has already been dispatched to the area to assist ongoing efforts of Turkish and Syrian guard boats. (Serkan Demirtaş/Hürriyet Daily News)

More babies for a strong Turkey

Nuray Mert
Hürriyet Daily News

---

Until recently, it used to be considered almost blasphemous to talk about “the rise of authoritarian politics in Turkey.” This fact alone is indeed a sign of authoritarian politics and/or authoritarian political cultures that it takes a long time to be alarmed by the signs of authoritarianism. The democrats of Turkey have long thought that authoritarianism is particular to Kemalism and its remnants, like the secularist military and judicial hegemony.

Now, “democrats” claim to be disappointed and even shocked by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s statements and Justice and Development Party (AKP) policies concerning the Uludere incident and abortion, which have been linked together in a curious way by PM Erdoğan himself. Finally, democrats have started to question the sincerity of the AKP on democratization or have begun to focus on Erdoğan’s personality.

There is no doubt that charismatic leaders like Erdoğan have a tendency toward autocracy.

Nevertheless, it speaks of a shallow understanding of politics to focus on traits like the “sincerity” of a political party or focus on the “personal mood” of its leader.

The test of sincerity for a political party and its leader is only possible through scrutiny and an analysis of its politics. Apart from political developments which have offered clear signs of authoritarian leanings, Erdoğan and many AKP politicians have not been hypocritical about their political convictions.

Erdoğan is, in fact often praised for his boldness. A good example among AKP politicians is Professor Burhan Kuzu, the current head of the Parliamentary Constitution Commission and an eager advocate of the “presidential system” who unashamedly announced his support for “capital punishment” a year ago. Nobody, however, bothered to discuss the political discourse of not only AKP but of “conservative democrats” in general up until very recently.

Now, it is the debate on abortion which has naturally provoked a lot of controversy. It is widely accepted that Erdoğan wanted to manipulate public opinion and divert attention from the Uludere controversy. Even if that is true, his anti-abortion stance underlined his authoritarian conservative leanings since he not only stated that he was against the pro-choice idea but also started a process to illegalize abortion. Moreover, he improved upon his conservative discourse by supplementing it with the nationalist line that he was against abortion and Caesarian operations because he thinks they are plots to hinder population growth in Turkey. In his Diyarbakır speech, he emphasized the importance of a young population for economic growth and for a strong country. Erdoğan wants more babies for a strong Turkey even if the mothers are reluctant.

In fact, even though some projections show that there could be problems related to a population decrease in future, there is no sign of a labor shortage problem in Turkey. On the contrary, unemployment is still a social, as well as economic problem. Besides, it is possible to overcome any labor force problem by relaxing immigration policies. Erdoğan’s “politics of benevolence” for poor countries could be reflected in immigration policies. I am sure poor Somalis would be more than happy if they were granted permission to reside and work in Turkey. Otherwise, the politics of population growth is nothing but a nationalist ambition.

The controversy on abortion is surely one of the conservative, authoritarian and nationalistic repercussions of Erdoğan and the AKP government – and I am afraid it will not be the last one.
(Nuray Mert-Hürriyet Daily News)