Oral Çalışlar
The Turkish original of this article was published as
‘Modern Türkiye’nin payandası yıkıldı’ mı? in the daily Posta
on 10th August, and in Serbestiyet on 11th August 2016.
HDP’den gelen “bizi dışarıda bıraktınız” değerlendirmelerini önemsiyorum. Bir yol açılması gerektiğini düşünüyorum. Dönüşüm, belki asıl o zaman, gerçek zeminine oturabilecek.
CHP leader Kılıçdaroğlu uttered some striking words at the Yenikapı rally: “As of this July, there is a new Turkey. If we can further develop this culture of compromise and reconciliation, we will be leaving our children a beautiful Turkey.” MHP leader Bahçeli made similar remarks. So we have this notion of a new Turkey where a culture of reconciliation has become paramount. But at the same time I do attach importance to the HDP’s reaction of “having been left out.” I believe that a way out has to be found, and that perhaps only then will this transformation find its real basis.
The New York Times
What I really want to dwell on is a 28th July article in the New York Times.Co-signed by Tim Arango and Ceylan Yeğinsu, it addresses the post-coup situation of the Turkish armed forces, and through its title proclaims that “With Army in Disarray, a Pillar of Modern Turkey Lies Broken.” According to the authors, the army was “a unifying force within the country” while the measures taken after the coup have diminished the country’s military potential and hurt NATO in the process. The article is suffused with regret that the putschists did not succeed.
Militarism and modernity
As a person who was a teenager at the time of the 27th May 1960 coup, and then spent seven years in prison under the 1971 and 1980 military régimes, I have been a witness to just how that “pillar of modern Turkey” functioned. Subsequently we have also witnessed the post-modern 28th February [1997] coup and most recently this 15th July attempt. Is it the case that for some people, these four main coup attempts and numerous other interventions of the military in politics over the last 56 years constitute the true story of “modern Turkey”? Is there a silent assumption that “modern Turkey can only be defended with coups and by uniformed militarists”? And what was it that actually happened after all these army takeovers? The power of the military in politics increased. The representative of the General Staff on the cinema censorship board began to pick which films could be shown or not. Deciding who could or could not be president came under the jurisdiction of the armed forces. Duly elected parliaments and governments were brought under outside tutelage. Presidents, prime ministers, opposition leaders were arrested, some executed. As for prospects after 15th July…
Asker üzerinden kurulacak modernleşmenin sonuçlarını yaşadık. Askeri artık siyasette görmek istemiyoruz.
The army is now going to have to stop being an autonomous force over and above politics, and will come fully under the aegis of civilian politics. At least, this is what is intended. We hope that military schools will no longer be institutions raising future putschists through a militarist education. Don’t we have problems? Aren’t there some disheartening incidents, too, that we have witnessed during the last couple of weeks? Of course there are many things to be discussed and debated. We shall be maintaining our critical stand. But the bottom line is that we have seen the consequences of modernization through the military, and we don’t want to see the armed forces in politics any more.