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xtruss · 9 months ago

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July 15: A Night Never To Be Forgotten

The 2016 failed coup attempt marks an important victory for the people of Turkey as it was the first time in the country's history that a military takeover failed and democracy triumphed.

— TRT World

Photo: Associated Press!

It has been five years since military tanks rolled across the bridges over the Bosphorus Strait and fighter jets fired on Turkish civilians. July 15 marks the fifth anniversary of a failed coup attempt that has left a permanent mark on the collective psyche of Turkey, its politics and diplomacy.

Around 250 people, many of them civilians, were killed and at least 2,000 wounded, as they stood up to a renegade group of armed soldiers loyal to the FETO Terror Group. They came in armoured vehicles, unleashing machine guns against their fellow countrymen.

Anyone who was in Istanbul, Turkey’s biggest city and home to grandiose Ottoman palaces and beautiful mosques, will talk about the fear low-flying F-16 jets struck in their hearts as they zoomed past breaking the sound barrier.

But despite those fears, thousands poured out onto the streets of major cities, including the capital Ankara, because they would have none of it.

As it became apparent that a group of soldiers wanted to dislodge a democratically elected government, tens of thousands of Turkish people came out of their homes around midnight to protest against the coup attempt.

They fought at key locations of Istanbul and Ankara, confronting the putschists on bridges, outside the parliament building, and other significant locations. The protesters resisted with whatever they could get their hands on — rocks, sign-poles and even shoes. Shocking mobile phone recordings made rounds on social media: a civilian man was run over by a tank as he stood in front of it; a woman was shot dead in cold blood; police commandos including many female officers lost their lives defending their posts and headquarters.

The coup plotters bombed the parliament building in Ankara and made an attempt on the life of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who barely managed to survive what many consider was either an assassination or kidnapping plot.

In subsequent weeks after the coup failed, Turkish prosecutors gathered evidence confirming that the treason was instigated by the cult leader Fethullah Gulen, the Head of FETO Terror Group.

Turkey’s politics and history have been marred by multiple coups. Its first democratically elected leader, the former Prime Minister Adnan Menderes, was executed by the junta in 1961 — after the country’s first military coup.

By 2016, it was a different people a faction of the military was up against. The Turkish public had struggled hard for democracy and had seen its benefits in the shape of rapid economic development, infrastructure expansion, construction of subways and improvement in public transportation. The country had a lot at stake on the night of July 15.

Yet Turkey’s defiance in the face of adversity was not appreciated by some of its closest friends — governments that never tire of commemorating the Tank Man of Tiananmen Square conveniently ignored the sacrifice of Turkish civilians.

Turkey’s western allies, including its NATO partners, were too slow in condemning the coup — a fact that Joe Biden, who back then was US vice president, acknowledged during his visit to Turkey a month after the coup.

For Ankara, which played an important role in the fight against Daesh (ISIS) and took upon itself the daunting task of housing millions of Syrian refugees, the silence over the failed coup was nothing short of a betrayal.

In the months following the failed coup attempt as Turkish prosecutors and courts began charging the putschists, some European lawmakers started raising concerns regarding the rights of the accused. This further infuriated the Turkish leadership.

It was around that time Turkey recalibrated its foreign policy and Ankara began to rebalance its ties with Moscow.

The US, which is Turkey's traditional ally since the end of World War II, did little to investigate Gulen, who continues to live in the state of Pennsylvania, his vast network of businesses in the US undeterred.

On its part, Turkey says it has provided all the needed evidence to Washington to start legal proceedings against the FETO leader.

Despite the lack of support from Western allies, the Turkish people displayed a remarkable resolve in defending their democracy.

For millions of Turks to rise up in such an unprecedented manner against mutinous soldiers meant they have collectively sent out a message: one that says never again!

Halil Kantarci, a Young Turk Who Gave His Life to Stop July 15 Coup Attempt

Resisting a military junta in the 1997 coup, Kantarci was imprisoned at 16 and released nine years later. He always stood for the country's religious freedom.

— TRT World

Halil Kantarci

A few hours before the military coup unfolded in Türkiye on July 15, 2016, Halil Kantarci posted a selfie on Twitter which showed him with a cigarette dangling from his lips.

The caption read: "If I die, remember me like this".

Ölürsem beni böyle hatırlayın, üzülmezsiniz. pic.twitter.com/nbzpxgvzF8 — Halil Kantarcı (@halilkantarci) July 15, 2016

Soon after tweeting, he heard a loud noise outside and learned the country was in danger of falling prey to a military takeover. Paying no heed to his wife's pleas — she wanted him to stay indoors — he ran out on the street to join the resistance.

The rogue soldiers, who were out on a rampage following the orders of the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), shot 36-year-old Kantarci dead.

The coup attempt was defeated on the same night. For the first time in the country's post-War history, Turkish citizens saved their democracy from a violent takeover. Kantarci was among 251 fellow Turks who were mercilessly gunned down by the putschists.

But Kantarci's short lifetime is representative of Türkiye's turbulent past. He came of age as a prisoner of conscience. In 1997, at the age of 16, he received a death penalty on the charges of being associated with the National Youth Foundation, which supported deposed Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan’s Welfare Party. The death sentence was served by a military junta as the Erbakan-led government was toppled the same year in what became known as Türkiye's postmodern coup given that it was a non-violent takeover.

Prior to the coup, Kantarci had had several run-ins with the military. He was first detained in 1995 while he was returning from an Erdogan rally in Istanbul’s Kagithane district. Erdogan was then the mayor of Istanbul, and he was a strong supporter of Erbakan.

People attend a ceremony marking the second anniversary of the attempted coup at the July 15 Bridge in Istanbul, Turkey, July 15, 2018.

A few days later, he was released. Within a year, however, he was detained again for participating in a protest that demanded the conversion of the Hagia Sophia museum into a mosque, a deeply sensitive demand in Turkish politics that was eventually met on July 24, 2020.

With the unfolding of the 1997 post-modern coup, the Turkish military arrested him again, citing the charges of his previous detentions. This time, he was handed a death penalty - though it was later overturned on the grounds of clemency and altered to a 9-year-long prison stay.

"They did not have any solid reason to imprison Halil (Kantarci) but they still put him in jail for 9 years. They merged his previous detentions to hand him a tough sentence," said Tayyar Tercan, a friend of Kantarci.

Like Kantarci, many public servants and civilians were victimised on the charges of being Erbakan supporters. Tens of thousands were sacked from their jobs and sent to prison. Women who wore headscarves were denied education as the dress code did not fit the definition of secularism espoused by the military leadership of that time. The coup, therefore, was the only way for them to remove the conservative prime minister Erbakan from power and protect secularism, a way of life propagated by the military elite of that time.

The consequences of the events of February 28 linger because unfinished trials are still ongoing.

During the imprisonment, Kantarci was repeatedly tortured, says Murat Koparan, one of his another close friends.

"Kantarci and other political detainees went on a strike for a month because the authorities were refusing them prayer rugs," he told TRT World.

"The prison officers who openly supported FETO leader Gulen and advocated his views did not like Kantarci. To break his will, they forcibly cut his hair. He used to have long hair back then," according to him.

The incident left a deep impact on Kantarci's psychology. Nine years after he was freed, Kantarci did not like visiting barber shops. The sight of scissors in a stranger's hand made him anxious. "He got his haircut only two to three times a year," Koparan said.

As the FETO terror network gained ground in Türkiye, it began to target its most fervent critics. Kantarci was one of them and his anti-FETO image landed him on the terror group's hit list, according to him.

"Kantarci knew that he was on FETO's execution list for a long time."

Fethullah Gulen, the Head of FETO Terror Group, living in Pennsylvania, USA

As his teenage imprisonment disrupted his education, he dropped out of school. "But he did not give up on reading. He read a lot in jail. He was an avid reader of history, and philosophy. He improved his writing and oratory skills, which helped him as a social activist."

Kantarci came from a family of goldsmiths. He joined his father's business after his imprisonment.

On the night of the July 15 coup, he resisted the rogue soldiers near the Cengelkoy police station, which was raided by FETO-linked soldiers.

Before stepping out of his house, he kissed his three children and hugged his wife, who never ceased to insist he ought to remain at home. He told her that if something untoward were to happen to him, on a night such as that, it would happen regardless of his whereabouts.

He was shot twice. Kadir Kantarci recalled his brother Halil Kantarci's last words. “I love my wife and children and I entrust them to the Ummah (community).”

Turkish NGOs started a campaign to fund an orphanage in Sri Lanka and named it after Kantarci. A kindergarten in Istanbul's Uskudar district and a Muslim seminary in Izmir province were also named after him.

#TRT World 🌎#July 15 2016 Failed Coup #Türkiye 🇹🇷#Fethullah Gulen | the Head of FETO Terror Group

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thealim01-blog · 2 years ago

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Dünyanın öküzün boynuzunda olduğuna dair hadis nasıl anlaşılmalıdır?

Fethullah Gülen Hocaefendi Cevaplıyor...

youtube

#Fethullah Gülen #Gülen Cemaati #Gülen Hareketi #Hizmet Hareketi #Gulen Movement #Hizmet Movement

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collapsedsquid · 1 month ago

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Fethullah Gulen, the Turkish cleric accused of masterminding a bloody attempted coup in 2016, has died aged 83, according to Turkish media reports and a social media post by a movement close to him. The cleric, who had been living in self-imposed exile in the US, died after being admitted to a Pennsylvania hospital, the reports said.

Arrested Eric Adams too late I guess, he accomplished his mission after Micheal Flynn failed

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mariacallous · 6 months ago

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Turkey’s new State of War and Mobilisation Regulation, published on Wednesday in the Official Gazette, makes President Recep Tayyip Erdogan the only decision maker when it comes to declaring national mobilisation in cases of wars and rebellions.

“The President will decide to declare general or partial mobilization in case of a situation of war arises and in case of an uprising… against the homeland or the Republic, or behaviour that endangers the indivisibility of the country and nation internally and/or externally,” the new regulation says.

The right to declare national mobilisation previously belonged to the cabinet.

The regulation explains that a national mobilisation will become effective with its publication and will be presented for the approval of parliament the same day.

The new regulation makes an important amendment to the issue of purged public workers, including soldiers, who were dismissed following the 2016 failed coup attempt. These purged public workers can now be classified as substitute soldiers in times of national emergency.

“Those dismissed from the profession because they were determined to be affiliated with terrorist organizations or structures against the national security of the state, and those who were sentenced to imprisonment by military courts and judicial courts … can also be ‘substitute personnel,’” the new regulation wrote.

This group of people was previously banned from public service by presidential decrees following the failed coup attempt, which resulted in the dismissal of more than a hundred thousand public workers from the police, military and judiciary, who were accused of having ties with the exiled preacher Fethullah Gulen.

Gulen and his network are accused of masterminding the coup attempt in 2016. Gulen has denied any connection.

The new regulation is a continuum of adjustments of state regulations to fit the executive presidential system which was accepted in 2017 under a controversial referendum, held when the country was ruled by a state of emergency.

The new system gives supreme powers to the President without strong check and balances, minimising the role of parliament.

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beardedmrbean · 2 years ago

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Turkey said on Wednesday that it summoned the German ambassador to protest a police operation against Turkish journalists operating in Germany.

Some early media reports spoke of the journalists' "arrest," although a statement from police and prosecutors later on Wednesday suggested they were briefly detained during a search operation and then released, but at no point were formally under arrest.

Turkey's Foreign Ministry said in a statement that "the detention of Frankfurt bureau representatives of Sabah newspaper by the German police today without justification is an act of harrassment and intimidation against the Turkish media."

German officials did not name the individuals, saying only that they were men aged 46 and 51.

Turkish media — including the affected publication, the German-language arm of the pro-government Daily Sabah newspaper group — reported that it was two senior reporters at the publication, Ismail Erel, Sabah's most senior German journalist, and Cemil Albay, editor-in-chief of Sabah Europe.

The ages and names appear to match.

The arrests follow soon after Turkey's presidential election first round on Sunday and in the run-up to the runoff vote in which incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan appears to be the favorite, based on first round results. The foreign ministry in Ankara also said the timing of the incident so soon after the vote raised the question of whether it was a "deliberate act."

What did German officials say of the raid?

The public prosecutor's office in Darmstadt and south Hesse's police issued a joint statement on Wednesday saying that two private apartments had been searched as part of a preliminary investigation.

The information that police made public also seemed to corroborate media reports that Sabah's publishing of information about a supposed supporter of Erdogan opponent Fethullah Gulen living in Germany was the cause of the police interest, possibly violating German privacy laws.

"In the context of a preliminary investigation by the Darmstadt prosecutor's office on suspicion of the spreading of personal data in a way that could endanger the individual, police forces searched the private residences of two journalists, aged 46 and 51, on Wednesday morning in Mörfelden-Walldorf," the statement said.

"During the operation investigators seized electronic data storage devices among other potential pieces of evidence. At the conclusion of the criminal police activities the two men were released again."

Police and prosecutors said that to protect the ongoing investigations they were not able to provide any further details at that point.

The European Center for Press and Media Freedom, a nonprofit based in Leipzig, shared an early English-language Turkish report on the issue on Wednesday and said that it "condemns the detention and will monitor the case."

"Press freedom must be upheld, we demand justice and transparancy," it said.

Reporting on alleged Gulen supporter the underlying reason?

The limited information from police appeared to corroborate media reports suggesting police interest was the result of the newspaper's recent coverage about a man residing in Germany who is alleged to have ties to Fethullah Gulen. The front page of Sabah Avrupa (Sabah Europe) recently carried an image of the man's private family residence in Germany. German laws on privacy protection in the media are comparatively strict.

Turkey often complains about people it deems terrorists or otherwise criminal, often either allies of Gulen or Kurdish activists, being able to live in Europe or North America. The country's recent obstruction of Finland's now-completed and Sweden's ongoing bids to join NATO were justified on this basis.

Germany is home to Turkey's largest diaspora community. The roughly 1.5 million still-eligible postal voters in Germany were an important component in Erdogan's first round success, with a far higher proportion supporting the incumbent from Germany than the roughly 49% of votes Erdogan claimed overall.

#nunyas news

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