1. We have left behind a military coup attempt that lasted from the evening of July 15 until the early morning on Saturday and ended when the soldiers surrendered. Unlike what AKP opponents claim, this coup attempt was not simply “staged.” Neither was it organized solely by Gülen supporters, which is the propaganda of AKP and its circles make in order to legitimize their counter-attacks. The attempt was too real to be staged; 240 people lost their lives in one night and 1535 other got wounded. This coup was one that surely included various cliques including Gülen circles and its extent only proves that Gülen supporters cannot be the only responsibles. The details of the planning of the coup in the midst of the army will certainly be revealed in time; what is of importance here is that the attempt was defeated. We have always been unconditionally against military coups given that the Turkish army is one of the fundamental institutions of the regime of repression in the country. If the coup had succeeded, we would have faced with losing what is left to us from our democratic rights and freedom, most of which had already been taken away by the AKP government.
2. The persistent conduct of the coup supporters is never enough for a coup to succeed; Friday night proved it yet again. A coup indicates the presence of problem of initiative within the powers of the state and, it necessitates, by nature, certain alliances among civilian ranks and within superstructure. The fact that every single opposition party, TÜSİAD (Turkish Industrialists’ and Businessmen’s Association) and the Turkish bourgeoisie all positioned against the coup was a decisive factor leading to the failure of the attempt. Another factor was the lack of open support of imperialism for the coup. Yet one more factor that contributed to the dissolution of coup supporters was the appearance of RTE (Erdoğan) on TVs thanks to, in his words, “free media” even though he was the one who have taken quite authoritarian measures against freedom of press. This appearance was also effective in preventing a possible support for the coup that might have come from certain political parties or bourgeois circles. Even though the masses that took the streets on Friday night following Erdoğan call to do so was a heterogeneous mass of people, it is important to point out that the majority of these masses were AKP’s paramilitary and lumpen forces that organize with the police. That is to say the role of the masses in preventing the coup was not as important as it is said to be.
3. The only responsible for bringing Turkey to a point of running up against a coup threat is the AKP government, and RTE himself. The repressive, authoritarian and pro-civil war policies, the continuous debates about his longed presidential system upset the order of the bourgeois state apparatus, deepened the crisis of the regime, and paved the way that led to the coup attempt. The process of Bonapartization that we have been witnessing in Turkey also represents a worldwide tendency. Imperialism still hasn’t been able to find a solution to the world economic crisis of capitalism. The more the economic crisis has deepened, the more it started triggering off political crises. Accordingly, the bourgeoisie has felt an increasing need for authoritarian and repressive regimes in order to ensure the implementation of austerity policies as well as to crash all uprisings against them. Carrying out offensive policies against the working class while at the same time constricting democratic spaces are two fundamental properties of regimes with Bonapartist tendencies just like AKP.
4. Bringing the focus back to Turkey, there are three important dates to understand the dynamics of the crisis of the regime in the country — the beginning of the 2008 world economic crisis, the process of 2011 Arab Revolutions subsequent adventurous foreign policies undertaken by AKP, and 2013 with first the Gezi uprising which made Erdoğan feel his power under threat, and then with the corruption scandals that cracked his power bloc. Turkish economy is far from being a self-sufficient economy; it is rather a dependent economy that had its share from the world economic crisis. Erdoğan attempted to become a role model in the Middle East and North Africa via the Muslim Brothers despite the contradiction between the insufficiency of capital accumulation in Turkish economy and the limitlessness of Erdoğan imperial dreams. Not only was he unsuccessful at this attempt but, he also completely failed at foreign policy and lost the trust of imperialism. The same RTE embarked upon a heavy repressive policy against democratic rights and freedoms after having suppressed the mass mobilization at Gezi. While on one hand the crack within the power bloc that resulted from the corruption scandals made him build new alliances, it also made Erdoğan further his authoritarian vision with the aim to fully consolidate the power in the hands of “one man,” that is himself. He took the plunge in order to transform the current system into a presidential one and didn’t hesitate to run the risk of starting a war. All these aforementioned circumstances and others deepened the cracks within the bourgeois state apparatus and intensified the crisis of the regime. RTE and AKP are not only responsible for what had happened in Turkey over the course of the last 14 years; they are also responsible for the process that led the country to this coup attempt. Just as we are against military coups, we also stand against RTE and AKP who have created the conditions that made this military coup possible!
5. In the aftermath of the failure of the coup, one of the most important issues is the kind of reaction that AKP and RTE will present. Would it be a slide towards “normalization” or would it be further authoritarianism that comes in an uncontrollable fashion? While they have signaled a positive attitude towards the Parliament in the aftermath of the failure of the coup, this attitude is far from being enough for anyone to get down off their high horse. For instance, all political parties were doomed worthy of Erdoğan’s verbal gratitude because of positioning themselves against the coup, however one can argue that this has been the only positive development so far. The wreck-looking shape of the state apparatus will compel AKP to make new alliances and obviously, every new alliance necessitates some sort of compromise.
6. The most important development in the aftermath of the failed coup attempt is the purge movement taking place in state institutions. The Palace regime, which used the words “gift of God” to refer to the coup attempt, has started emptying out the state institutions claiming that they have been infested by members of FETÖ (Fettullah Terrorist Organization, aka. supporters of Gülen). The current numbers are as follows: 6,319 people from Turkish Armed Forces and 481 judges and prosecutors were taken in custody. 257 people from the Office of the Prime Minister, 8,777 people from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, 15,200 people from the Ministry of Education, 393 people from the Ministry of Family and Social Planning, 492 people from the Presidency of Religious Affairs, more than 1500 people from the Ministry of Finance, 100 people from the Turkish National Intelligence Organization (MIT), and 25 staff members from the Energy Market Regulatory Authority were suspended. Moreover, 21,000 teachers got their licenses revoked and 1577 deans across the country were asked to resign. As these are the numbers from the first four days after the coup attempt, it wouldn’t be wrong to assume that the number of those who will be suspended under the pretense of belonging to FETÖ would increase even further by day. This situation signals a historical disintegration in state institutions, the extent of which hadn’t been reached even after the successful military coups that had happened in Turkey in the past! This extent, at the same time, proves the weakness of the government and the depth of the crisis of the regime.
7. The extent of AKP’s internalization of the regime of repression and Erdoğan’s nature of taking things personally is so much so that even slowing down a bit is not an option for him, let alone considering “normalization.” This represents the most fundamental contradiction of the times to come. RTE, who triggered off the dynamics of a military coup with his civil war regime, perseveres on the path of becoming the result of a situation of which he himself was the cause. His “my way or die” attitude would neither facilitate repairing the crack within the state apparatus, nor preventing an economic collapse. Neither would it help him regain the confidence of imperialism about matters of foreign policy that he had lost. His call to people to take the streets dressed up as a discourse of democracy against military coup is also a product of this contradiction. As if he wasn’t the one who have continuously tried to suppress the masses that took the streets to defend their democratic rights throughout his political reign!
8. It seems like we have gotten away with a threat of a military dictatorship for the time being, however the repressive policies of civil war of the Palace regime that caused this very threat still persists. Meanwhile, the threats of attacks against Alawites, Kurds and Syrian refugees that come into being in the presence of the paramilitary forces of AKP still continue. We say no to the sectarian, nationalist, racist, and discriminatory policies fueled by AKP to divide the working class! The only alternative to this counter-revolutionary wave consists of the construction of a broad front consisting of workers, women, youth, the Kurdish population, and all other repressed sectors, which would mobilize against the repressive and looting policies of the government on the basis of the independence of the working class.
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