After each of the coup plans revealed one after another, the question re-asked by everyone is “Can there be a coup in this day and age?” Some ask it out of curiosity, and some ask in order to comfort themselves by taking the reasons of impossibility of a coup into consideration as if finding a solace in it. After the plans for Sarikiz, Ayisigi, Yakamoz, Eldiven, Kafes, Gulen, and AKP, the Sledgehammer Plan provides evidences of a preparation for an actual coup rather than being a plan. According to news on Taraf newspaper, the existence of about 5 thousand pages documents and a series of voice recordings illustrate all the details of a coup attempt and preparations.
After each of the coup plans revealed one after another, the question re-asked by everyone is “Can there be a coup in this day and age?” Some ask it out of curiosity, and some ask in order to comfort themselves by taking the reasons of impossibility of a coup into consideration as if finding a solace in it. After the plans for Sarikiz, Ayisigi, Yakamoz, Eldiven, Kafes, Gulen, and AKP, the Sledgehammer Plan provides evidences of a preparation for an actual coup rather than being a plan. According to news on Taraf newspaper, the existence of about 5 thousand pages documents and a series of voice recordings illustrate all the details of a coup attempt and preparations.
We had a narrow escape from the Sledgehammer Coup Plans that were planned seven years ago, but were not able to be put into action anyway. Considering these plans, it can be said that democracy in Turkey is a risky sphere. Going back to our question on the possibility of a coup, we can say that we should not think about finding a solace considering the potential and authority of the pro-coup people. No, it is not because there are objective circumstances for a real possible coup. And this is the problem indeed: when considering the possibility of a coup, generally the objective circumstances are taken into consideration and this cannot reflect the exact estimations. The pro-coup people are considered normal and thought to have an objective mind and rationality, and this is the first biggest mistake.
It is assumed that pro-coup people do not do what the normal people cannot do. However, the minds of pro-coup people do not work like the minds of normal people. While where the world is going concerns normal people, the pro-coup people look at the world from their own perspectives. Ideology, as the name implies, is a curtain that veils the reality. Once a person’s eye is closed, he/she starts to see the reality so differently from the others. And if he/she especially strengthens his/her perception of the reality with other people like him, after a while he/she enters into a different world in which he/she never doubts himself/herself. The world perceptions of the military officers who are preparing for a coup are evidently the reflections of the perspective of the intended coup. Besides each student in the Military Academy desires to be a president one day. And the only way to be a president is to make a military coup. We are talking about a closed community that have the principal mission of making a military coup and live together all the time even in their daily lives, business lives, private lives, and leisure times.
Certainly every individual of this community does not equally share a common pro-coup culture. However, depending on some diaries and revealed real daily life experiences, it is understood that this culture is very liable to build a subculture. The fact that this subculture created a considerable character considering the additional characteristics of perspectives produced by some experiences in Turkey sociologically cannot be ignored.
Under the circumstances, the question on the possibility of a coup in this day and age is surely not a question which can be answered merely considering the objective circumstances. There are certain dates and times of pro-coup people considering their own subjective circumstances. According to them, the time of coup can easily be isolated from the world affairs. There is no insurmountable obstacle and no problem that cannot be solved. All the developments that we consider to prevent military coups, are merely insignificant problems which pro-coups can solve with little effort. If Turkey is integrated with the world, it is not troublesome to break this union. It can be done through internet, various television channels, newspapers, and a number of intellectuals; it is adequate to hold a small seminar in order to cope with them.
There are definitely many things that are not taken into account when writing a scenario considering all these above. However, it is scenario, as the name implies, and it has at least one common characteristic of all scenarios: The play created in mind does not have to totally adhere to reality. There is nothing a person who has a military coup on his/her mind cannot do; yet the scenarios of these people unlike film scenarios easily fail in Reality. Every time, a small dose of reality can suspend that beautiful scenario and it seems it has done so until now. Probably the biggest measure for these pro-coup people is the stimulating nature of reality in the first phase of the application of every scenario.
We do not know whether pro-coup people realize reality when they first meet it; but it is certain that they come to the recognition of the inapplicability of their scenarios.
The fact that the revealed Sledgehammer Scenario dates back seven years ago is a solace. However, the other scenarios in these seven years are relatively new. The plans for AKP and Gulen are still new and even they have been in practice. The intention of bearing arms at some houses has been revealed in the application phase of the plan and they have not reached their aims.
When the military officers who had been watching Bulent Arinc’s house were arrested, it was not proved that they had been working on a new plan; yet it was understood. The scenario of creating a military coup atmosphere by escalating the secular sensitivity through the Council of State attack, has been beyond a scenario and it has been turned into a nightmare only for three years. And a memorandum on April 27, 2007 did not prove a possibility of a coup, yet it illustrated that there is no chance in their intentions. Successive attempts and intentions clearly indicate that the scenarios on which they consistently work are among the routine activities of a community and we are, as a society, indeed not seriously protected against the routine activities of this community. Although this community have a perception of reality that is alienated from the reality in the society in general, they possess potential, arms, and means that continually insinuate that they can change the world. As a matter of fact, under normal circumstances, giving opportunities, which can be offered to normal people, to the ones who have different perception of reality leads to dangerous situations. If he starts to consider what he has as a property and a sphere of control rather than as a means to his certain duty, this position like every position becomes dangerous. The circumstances do not change even this position is an official duty with no relation with arms. We do not have to expect this kind of people to behave in the same way with normal people. You can treat them as ill people depending on how hard the situation is.
Therefore, we should not totally believe that the conditions in Turkey are not ready for a military coup, and Turkey is immune to coups because Turkey’s economy is extremely integrated to the world. These circumstances can be about the evaluation of the sustainability of a military coup. Accordingly, the ones who take a risk of making a military coup also take a risk of breaking Turkey’s connections with the world. Under these circumstances, although Turkey’s extremely urbanized social structure and culture and education level can lead to uncontrollable spheres, plans for each can be made. Whether these plans work or not will definitely be clear with the first encounter with reality. Moreover, it is evident that although every coup plan or preparatory work composes of many crimes, the one who commits these crimes at first does not realize that it is a crime and assumes that it is a routine action in the context of defending his country.
That the signatures on the documents of the plan are wet signatures shows that the people who prepare these plans have enough domestic-institutional legitimacy. The people who prepare these documents or plans do not even evaluate what they have done in terms of logic and its rationale. This is an extremely fair and routine “defense” activity against “the enemies inside” who definitely exist and have almost gained legal status. And surely this is the most innocent form of the issue.
Considering all these, we can deduce that there is still some possibility for a military coup and all the ways to attempt for a coup have not been all closed. It is certain that there are some objective conditions that support this perception of reality constantly shared by a large group of people. These conditions are probably the education level of the military schools, a certain structure of socialization for the people in this institution, and what is more important is the existence of some legal excuses and opportunities that make them feel like they can use these spheres and means freely in the way they want. EMASYA Protocol during the February 28 period with the Turkish Armed Forces Internal Service Law gives authority to the military units to intervene in social incidents on their own decision without prior approval of the governor. Although this protocol and internal service law can be put into practice with extreme commentaries and actual circumstances, there is no way to express this other people after it is put into practice. What should be done is to abolish this protocol by the Ministry of Internal Affairs one-sidedly and wake pro-coup people to the objective conditions of their limits of reality as soon as possible. Otherwise, our democracy will become a victim of insanity in the gaps created by us while trusting the changing conditions of the world. And do not forget that the most important source of motivation and ideology for the neo-coup culture is nothing but the insanity indoctrinated by Those Crazy Turks that is read like a sacred book. And the title of the book was already given by them.
Translated by Leyla Deniz.