[fse-esf] Threat of coup d'etat in Turkey

[Alp Altinors]

>From the webpage of weekly revolutionary-socialist newspaper "ATILIM", 
published in Turkey (www.atilim.org)

Threat of coup d'etat in Turkey

ENGLISH (28.04.2007)- The fascist army intervened in the Presidency 
elections held in the National Assembly by a threatening declaration last 
night, at 11.15 pm. The declaration was directed against the right of the 
parliament to elect Abdullah Gul as President, claiming that the “principal 
question in the Presidential elections process has been secularism”. The 
declaration came just after the first round of the Presidential elections, 
while the opposition party CHP had brought the voting to the Constitutional 
Court, claiming that the number of attended deputies is not sufficient to 
make the voting. If the Court takes a decision accordingly, this will lead 
to the abondoning of the Presidential elections and will begin a process of 
early elections.

In the declaration, the following phrases took part:

“In the last days, the principal question in the Presidential election 
process has been focused on secularism. This situation is being watched by 
the Turkish Armed Forces with anxiousness. It shouldn't be forgotten that, 
the Turkish Armed Forces are a side in these discussions and is the staunch 
defender of secularism. Furthermore, the Turkish Armed Forces are against 
these discussions and the negative comments, and will display their position 
and attitudes openly and strictly, when necessary. Noone should have any 
doubt about this. In short, anyone who opposes the understanding of the 
founder of our Republic, Great Leader Ataturk; 'Happy is the one who calls 
himself a Turk', is and will be an enemy of the Republic of Turkey. The 
Turkish Armed Forces is determined to fulfill the open duties given to them 
by the law to protect these qualities, and their devotion and faith to this 
determination is certain.”

The declaration of the Armed Forces is a military memorandum, and a threat 
of military coup d'etat. When translated into the language of Turkish 
politics, this memorandum is an intervention to both the Assembly and the 
Constitutional Court. The army, by this memorandum declared that they viewed 
the election of Abdullah Gul for Presidency as a “regime problem”, and won't 
let it, even this election is done on a constitutional basis.

Also they threatened the Kurdish national movement and the democratic 
sectors who question the official ideology, with the referance to the phrase 
“Happy is the one who calls himself a Turk”, since broad sectors of the 
population (millions of people) are calling themselves as “Kurds” and 
claiming national democratic rights.

Democratic rights are under threat

The excuse for the memorandum, “secularism”, is merely a demagogy. It was 
the army, during the coup d'etat of 1980, who brought compulsory religion 
lessons to the education system, it was them who supported the islamic 
reactionary forces to grow, it was them to found mosques in all the Alevi 
villages, it was them who accepted Turkish-Islam synthesis as the state 
ideology. Religious Affairs Presidency (Diyanet İşleri 
Başkanlığı) is the state institution of religion, which 
has a huge budget and to which all the mosques and all the imams are subject 
to. Turkey is not a secular country, since the state is fused with religion.

The generals are fooling the people for gaining mass support for their 
semi-military fascist regime. They are angry because their share of state 
power is diminishing, since the Presidency had traditionally been a tool 
helping the military control the regime.

The fascist memorandum gave a vital importance to the struggle against 
military coup d'etat and military intervention to politics in Turkey. What 
is at danger is not secularism, but democratic rights (which are already at 
a very low level.) The army wants to freeze the constitutional rights of the 
institutions and govern the country on its own.

We also call all the peoples of the world to protest against this fascist 
memorandum and to stand near the peoples of Turkey who want freedom and 
democracy, no more military intervention.

_________________________________________________________________
Hava durumunu bizden ögrenin ve evden öyle çikin! 
http://www.msn.com.tr/havadurumu/