National Review Online
Monday, July 18, 2016
The abortive military coup that aimed to overthrow
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan is particularly mystifying. Erdogan
accuses Fethullah Gulen — an Islamist much like himself, and at least his equal
in the competition to have absolute power — of staging the revolt. Currently in
exile in Pennsylvania, Gulen denies all knowledge of it, but Erdogan is
bellowing at the top of his lungs for President Obama to extradite him.
The army has mounted several coups in the past in order
to safeguard the secular state put in place between the world wars by Kemal
Ataturk. The secular establishment constituted an ideological opposition to
Erdogan’s Islamism; as prime minister, Erdogan set about destroying it. In
2011, he claimed to have uncovered Ergenoken, as it was called, a deep-laid
conspiracy to take over the country. There was no such thing. On completely
trumped-up charges, he set in motion a massive purge. The chief of staff,
generals, admirals, and numerous journalists were imprisoned. Ominously,
hundreds of judges and policemen were fired. Erdogan acquired the sobriquet of
“The Caliph.”
Worse was to come. The constitutional role of prime
minister did not satisfy Erdogan’s urge for absolute power. Under his
increasingly authoritarian bidding, the Turks have been manipulated into
scrapping parliamentary democracy in favor of presidential democracy. When the
voters in a general election rejected this transformation of Erdogan into,
effectively, President for Life, they were obliged to hold a second general
election to give Erdogan’s desired answer.
An army commander and two generals are now under arrest;
charged with treason, they are facing the death sentence. An army major is the
senior officer of the eight who fled by helicopter to Greece — all minor
figures who had not laid sufficient groundwork for the coup they were
attempting. Erdogan has seized the moment to make an example by arresting a few
thousand soldiers who had no very clear idea what they were doing. He also
plans to sack another few thousand judges — though how they come into the issue
is inexplicable.
This episode ends in the farcical congratulations Western
politicians are offering to Erdogan for the restoration of democracy in Turkey.
The U.S. should be doing the exact opposite, and it should also staunchly
refuse demands for Gulen’s extradition. This haphazard military coup has had
the effect of blackening secularism and consolidating absolute power and
Islamism. Highly convenient for The Caliph.
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