Destruction

The destruction is not limited to the killing of 161 of our soldiers and civilian citizens, and also not limited to the bombing of government institutions… 

The July 15 coup attempt caused much destruction in the army and the judiciary. For the army and the judiciary to return to their regular hierarchy and professional functioning, everybody has to be very attentive; this is critically important for the future of Turkey.

The uprising of young officers in 1908 disrupted the hierarchy in the army; political groupings killed the spirit of the institution. The May 27, 1960, coup was also a non-hierarchic one. It caused “revolutionary” juntas, bloody clashes and long years of political instability. 

Why was the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) not able to track such a wide coup organization starting from inside the General Staff to several military units all the way to the southeast province of Hakkari? 

A more important issue is that in the army that has martyrs in the fight against terror, there will be officers arrested because they were involved in the coup attempt. This will create hierarchic voids. In the army, discipline and hierarchy are the top military values. 

Of course officers associated with the coup should be discharged; but while new appointments are made, the only criterion should be merit in the military sense. 

Once the suspicion that political considerations are taking a role in appointments is shared by officers, it would cause disasters like we have seen in history. 

It is obvious that the Gülen community not only opened schools, but conducted political acts in the police, judiciary and army. The coup attempt was almost a suicide attack. 

Investigating these acts to the end and not allowing separate structures in government institutions is a requirement of being a state. 

It is very wrong to create a structure “in harmony with the executive organ” on grounds of “cleansing” the community members from the justice system. The latest example of this is political indictments; also the appointment of pro-government trustees by the peace courts formed in July 2014. 

Now, judges who cannot possibly be associated with the coup attempt are being detained en masse on charges of attempting to stage a coup. 

The terminating of the memberships of certain people in the Supreme Council of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) and the detaining of two high judges in the Constitutional Court are against the constitution and the founding laws of these institutions. 

We have to strengthen democracy and rule of law against coups. Democracy and rule of law cannot exist without the other. 

Why were daily Hürriyet and CNN Türk television raided by bullies and subjected to attacks? It was because they defended democracy, rule of law and freedom of expression altogether. 

If the coup had succeeded it would not have destroyed the ballot box only, it would have terminated the law, too. 

Liberal democracy, an independent and impartial justice, a professional national army and well educated young generations… The future of Turkey depends on these.