The failure of the coup attempt in Turkey last week by sections of the army has been portrayed by some as Recep Tayyip Erdoðan’s victory. The narrative seems to be that it was the mass support for him that led to the coup’s abortion. This is an exaggeration. However, days after the putsch even such speculations were rife that Erdoðan himself provoked the coup to get rid of the dissenting sections of the army. An article in The Guardian on July 17 wrote, “Exactly who orchestrated the coup remains unclear. While the government points the finger at the Pennsylvania-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gülen, others believe the president himself stage-managed it all to consolidate his power…”
It is true that some thousands of people were shown on television screens in different cities, but there weren’t millions that had poured on to the streets as was the case in Egypt, Tunisia and elsewhere during the Arab revolution that swept across the region in 2011. It is true that the intervention and blockades of these crowds taking on the army was a deterrent to the success of the coup, but it was not the only factor that led to the failure of the attempt. The coup was ill-planned, and was not carried out through military’s chain of command. The troops involved failed to capture Erdoðan, and stop the coverage in the mainstream media and social networks. Erdoðan used this weakness to mobilise his supporters. Religious leaders loyal to the president also used the network of mosques with loudspeakers to urge Turks to go out into the streets in the name of “jihad.” But ultimately, the dominant section of the army controlled by the top brass defeated the coup. The military elite was part of the Erdoðan’s courtiers complicit in the corruption and plunder in which this incumbent regime is alleged to be drenched.
Lenin once pointed out that some very peculiar situations could arise in revolutions and mass movements, particularly in non-advanced societies. Progressive elements in movements can sometimes flow parallel with the regressive tendencies in such social cataclysms. Apart from the clashes between the adversaries within the army, there have been scuffles between the opponents and the supporters of the coup attempt in Istanbul and several other cities. Along with rallies of Erdoðan’s supporters there have been protests and demonstrations against him, which were being attacked by tear gas shells and water cannons by the regime’s forces.
Many people joined the anti-putsch crowds because of their revulsion to military rule, and not in support of the despotic regime. It was more of the so-called “captain’s coup” that was common in the ex-colonial countries in the 1950s, 1960s and the 1970s. Apart from the faulty planning they had not broken the military elite’s command decisively to make the coup succeed. For some years now Turkey has seen periodic protests against the despotic Erdoðan regime. The bourgeois media is harping about the differences between Islamist meanderings of Erdoðan and the secular foundations of Turkey’s army. But it’s just the tip of the iceberg. The so-called secularist traditions of the Turkish army and Islamists’ politics are immersed in the economic and social turmoil that has developed with the particular pattern of Turkish capitalism that has failed to develop as a healthy system. The relatively uneven economic growth in the last period was in fact fuelling the conflicts rather than resolving them. The ensuing poverty and inequality has sharpened contradictions in society and the army.
The role of Turkey’s deep state in the creation of fundamentalist outfits such as the Daesh and other proxies, and the state’s own imperialist designs have further exacerbated this turbulence. We can see the similar role of Pakistan’s deep state in relation to the rise of fundamentalist terror in Afghanistan and elsewhere. A New York Post article describes this situation, “Recep Tayyip Erdoðan, the prime minister-turned-president now is an autocrat. He flirted with support for terrorist groups like Hamas, the al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front and even the Islamic State. Some regimes believe flirtation with radical Islamists might fulfill short-term policy ends, but in the long term there is always a heavy price. The past year’s attacks in Ankara and Istanbul may have convinced Turks outside Erdoðan’s inner circle that their reckoning was near.” The existence of non-state actors pampered and supported by Erdoðan has now backfired with increased acts of terrorism in Turkey itself. The financial scandals, land grabbling, rampant corruption and plunder from which obviously some sections of the state’s elite were excluded could also be the reasons for the coup plotters to embark upon this misadventure.
The support for ISIL, brutal military aggression against the Kurds, falling growth rates, price hikes, increasing disparity, oppression of workers and political activists, and a dynastic rule fostered delusions in Erdoðan of becoming a sultan in a reincarnated Ottoman empire. The repression of trade unions and brutal repression of the demonstrations against him were also the cause of this social unrest that had penetrated the sections of the army, particularly in the middle and lower ranks. The armed forces don’t exist in a vacuum but in a living society, and are dialectically affected by it. Whatever the intentions of the coup plotters may have been, a new military dictatorship in Turkey that has experienced four vicious military coups would have been another disaster for masses. Nor would such a regime solve any of the issues haunting the masses. To condemn the coup is one thing, whereas to credit Erdoðan for any democratic credentials would be no less imprudent.
After his survival Erdoðan roared, “This uprising is a gift from God to us because this will be a reason to cleanse our army.” Earlier, the judicial authorities said that some 2,745 judges across the country would be dismissed in the wake of the coup. More than 60,000 military personnel, civil servants and intellectuals have been barred from travelling. Around 300 military personnel and civilians were killed, and scores injured during this putsch. More than 6,000 people have been arrested, from foot soldiers to senior officers and civilians.
(To be concluded)
The writer is the editor of Asian Marxist Review and international secretary of Pakistan Trade Union Defence Campaign. He can be reached at [email protected]