Coup anniversary protested in Ankara

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

The Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions (DİSK) holds a protest in Ankara. DAILY NEWS photo, Selahattin SÖNMEZ

The Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions (DİSK) has said that the Sept. 12, 1980 military coup d’état continues under the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government.

“Our mission is to eradicate September 12 and all of its results,” DİSK head Erol Ekici said, as he read out a press statement on the occasion of the anniversary of the coup, before holding a symbolic sit-in protest in front of the former Constitutional Court building in the capital city of Ankara, which was seized from DİSK by the junta at the time of the coup.

The United States was behind 1980’s military coup, Ekici said, adding, “Today the AKP is the follow-up to this project. In other words Sept. 12 continues with the AKP government.”The AKP government is not against military coups in principle, it is only against coups targeting the AKP, Ekici said, adding that the AKP continues to function with institutions such as the Higher Education Body (YÖK) and the Supreme Board of Radio and Television (RTÜK), which are legacies of the Sept 12th coup.“The AKP is not against guardianship. Today it has established guardianship over society. There is guardianship over the universities, media, justice, security and all other areas. The AKP has borne down on opposition movements with the same mentality as [that which was behind] the Sept. 12 coup,” Ekici said, noting that a degenerative process is taking place in contemporary Turkey in every field: from human rights to the violation of syndical rights and from censorship of the media to the lack of a solution to the Kurdish problem.

“There is no doubt that what we are experiencing is a deepening of the Sept. 12 coup,” Ekici said. The eradication of all institutions and representatives established under the military regime is the only solution, he said.

In a related development, a group from the Federation of Revolutionist ‘78ers -- members of which were victimized by the Sept. 12 junta administration – held a protest in front of the Ankara radio offices of the public broadcaster Turkish Radio and Television (TRT) early yesterday morning. The group carried posters of the late Erdal Eren and Necdet Adalı, who faced capital punishment under the junta.

Meanwhile, spokesperson for the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), Haluk Koç, dubbed the Sept. 12 junta era as “an era of black fascism,” which has been inspiration for today’s formations.