According to estimates, more than 4 million people gathered in the Yeni Kapi area of Istanbul, making August 7, 2016, a historic date for the Turkish people. The President, leaders of the opposition political parties, the Speaker of the Parliament, top generals, senior judges, non-governmental organizations, and celebrities were all at Yeni Kapi Square to stand united for democracy, freedom, and rule of law and against theocracy. Ultimately, they were protesting the July 15th coup attempt by the religion cult leader Fetullah Gulen. This rally put an end to three weeks of demonstrations following the failed takeover. In this rare event the highest number of participants and the leaders of three political parties responded to a call made by President Erdogan by leaving their political differences and taking the stage. Thus, July 15th was a milestone for Turkey because of the Turkish people’s strong stance against the coup in which soldiers paid with the cost of their lives.No party flags or banners were present except the Turkish flag. It was not a picture that perpetrators of the failed coup attempt--members of religious cult of Fethullah Gulen--wanted to see. It was not a good picture for Gulenists’ Terror Organization (FETO) because the failed coup attempt unified a polarized Turkey. Before the coup Turkish society was completely polarized, but Gulen’s terror organization unified the nation. The Turkish government was surrounded by the two failed states of Iraq and Syria, and was fighting a war with the Kurdish guerillas, ISIS, and the cult religion of the Fethullah Gulen movement.
General Hulisi Akar, head of the Turkish military who was kidnapped by the officers in his own military office that night, directly accused Gulen of being the leader of the terrorist group behind the attempt in a speech he delivered at the rally. Consequently, the Turkish government and people want the leader of the Gulenists to be extradited to Turkey to face justice because more than 240 people died and more than 2000 people were injured at that event. President Obama is still asking Turkey for evidence about whether Gulen was involved in the coup or not. When an American military general visited Turkey, he met with a Turkish military general asking for evidence. The Turkish General Hulisi Akar responded, “I am the answer.”
The support-for-democracy rally not only supported Erdogan’s definition of democracy but also demanded the extradition of FETO’s leader, Fethullah Gulen, so that he can face justice. Undoubtedly, Gulen is no longer an asset for American national interests, and it would be a headache for the U.S to keep him because harboring him would seriously harm interests and relationships in the Middle East. America cannot win the war on terror while supporting and providing sanctuary to the terror leader Gulen and his movement. The same goes for international communities as well; they cannot win the war on terrorism while letting Gulen’s terror groups operate schools, NGOs, and businesses in their countries, including the Philippines.
The Philippine government should investigate his followers and ensure their departure from the country. The Turkish government, the public, and the media are reporting in detail and providing significant evidence that the coup attempt was planned by Gulen, and surely the CIA knows very well that Gulen planned the overthrow and what his purpose has been in opening schools, NGOs, businesses, and universities around the world. It is true, though, Gulen uses the CIA, and the CIA is using Gulen for their interests. If America does not extradite Gulen, the Turkish public and the world will believe that America was behind the coup in Turkey, and America will have a hard time winning the war on terror. As long as Gulen lives in Pennsylvania, the media around the world will continue to report about Gulen and remind the public that America is harboring the leader of a terror group. It is in the American interest to extradite Gulen or exile him to another country.
I hope that the U.S government will understand the strong message that the Turkish people sent. President Erdogan met with the his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, as Russia and Turkey continue their quest to mend fences after their relations hit the rocks following the downing of a Russian jet fighter that violated Turkish airspaces near the Syrian border. Turkey started to veer away from the Western system of government and now is courting new friends with the East. Turkey is a NATO member and has NATO’s second largest armed forces, (or did before the roundup); it also aspires to membership in the European Union, but recently it has drawn criticism in the West.
Western countries have not shown solidarity with Turkey. Not a single western leader has visited Turkey to offer condolences to display solidarity with the Turkish people. Instead they have started to criticize the Turkish government for cracking down to weed out the coup plotters from the system. They have created the image that Erdogan has been using the coup to crack down on his opponents, which is total nonsense. I do not understand. They probably expected Erdogan would give flowers for those who killed more than 240 people, injured 1200 more and bombed the Turkish parliament. Europe is dead already; there is a leadership crisis in Europe, and that is why Europe is in a mess.
There is a wide consensus that Fethullah Gulen and his followers violated and brutalized rule of law, tolerance, and democratic principles over the years in order to place their people in every critical positions of the state. They stole state exam questions and gave them to their devotees as flowers; they fabricated evidence to get rid of their opponents in the military, the police, the judiciary, and the bureaucracy; in addition, they leaked documents to the media and ran smear campaigns to vilify and defame their opponents.
This picture of unity against the coup attempt and against the religious cult’s leader, as well as the demand for a democratic system does not mean that the opposition parties have abandoned their differences and does not mean Erdogan is the absolute ruler. The people demand merit based, transparent and accountable governance, one that will serve the people and the country and not the interests of a person or a group. They also insisted on the end to the FETO group, so the Turkish government is determined to respond to the demands of the Turkish people. This public outcry also taught Gulen’s cult a lesson. If Gulen would like to object to Erdogan and to the AK party, then he should openly join the Turkish democratic system to object to and to solve the problems of the Turkish democracy by using democratic means, not by destroying them with a non-democratic military coup.
If the 15th of July attempted coup had been successful, Turkey would have been transformed into a huge prison, and its democratic system of government would have been replaced with Gulen ‘s cultic verison of theocracratic absolute rule of a dictatorship. He would have returned to Turkey to establish his Caliphate and would have openly made Turkey fight directly with the leader of ISIS, Abubakir Al Baghdadi, who declared himself Caliph for the Islamic world. That is one of the reasons Gulen had opened so many schools, NGOs, universities, and businesses around the world-- to replace leaders by infiltrating key positions and top government institutions with his followers to bring down and declare his Caliphate. Gulen is now trying to use all of his resources and firepower to organize his group outside of Turkey and is seeking to strike again with his usual tactics of spending money, running smear campaigns, and basically allying himself with anyone who does not like Erodgan. His self-positioning as a moderate, tolerate, loving, peace caring alternative to religious radicalism has no credibility in Turkey and should not have any in the rest of the world. He denies that he was involved in the coup, but it is a strategy to win the support of the West and the United States. The leader of the free world should understand and support the Turkish people since the July 15th coup targeted Turkish democracy and sought to undermine the legitimacy of the elected President and the government.
Dr. Aland Mizell is President of the MCI and a regular contributor to Mindanao Times. You may email the author at:aland_mizell2@hotmail.com
