The Republic of Turkey has faced many attempts to transform itself through military and civilian coups in its history. Among these coups, the most important military coup that brought the country to this state of affairs was the September 12 military coup, which was paved by the prolonged bloody provocations of the US and its allies.
If today, thanks to the People's Alliance, an attack on all the gains of the republic continues under the rule of the political Islamist authoritarian regime, the day this project started was September 12, 1980. Of course, since it was not possible to destroy the gains of an entrenched republic with a single military coup, the imperialists and their pawns needed many political conspiracies and civilian coups...
Now that the military coup was ‘out’, they preferred to do it with a series of civilian coups. It is important to remember that the July 15 coup attempt was a tool used to pave the way for these civilian coups, because one would have to be blind not to see that everything that happened after that was a roadmap prepared on the Washington-London-Brussels line!
US ‘Our Boys', this time out of uniform
What the September 12 coup was, I think the April 16, 2017 referendum was an important turning point in an equally treacherous plot. Let me continue by sharing a few observations about that day.
I was the school officer of Oy ve Ötesi at a school in the Gülbahar neighborhood of Şişli.
If I am not mistaken, there were 14 ballot boxes in the school. We were working hard to make sure that not a single vote was stolen. There were no problems until noon, then the AK Party and MHP observers started to make faces, then they started to fight in some ballot boxes.
The general opinion was that the No vote was leading in the referendum. After a while, the illegal decision of the Supreme Electoral Council (YSK) was announced. The famous decision that ‘unsealed votes' would also be considered valid!... Of course, the opposition parties immediately revolted!...
Had it not been for the YSK's decision, there would be no presidential government system (CHS) today. We would not have been crushed under such an authoritarian regime that would have plunged the country into chaos. In addition, the irrational so-called ‘Turkish Economic Model’ would not have been implemented and the biggest wealth transfer and economic crisis in the country's history would probably not have happened.
Remember the gangs with shotguns
This was a civilian coup organized by the AK Party rulers with the support of their cross-border allies, and it was obviously not staged in a hurry on the day of the referendum. It could not have been organized in the afternoon, as evidenced by the fact that gangs armed with shotguns hit the roads in many places after the voting hours ended and the law enforcement agencies turned a blind eye.
Whoever stuffed 50-100 TL into the pockets of adolescents in the suburbs, stuffed them into pickup trucks, and gave shotguns to their older brothers, had also assigned someone to direct them. I personally saw that some of these assigned people were MHP members. It is possible to say that AK Party members from the district and provincial organizations were also there.
The aim was to intimidate the people's revolt against the YSK decision, they obviously did not want any confrontation as much as possible! I say this because about a kilometer before the Şişli District Electoral Board building, there were pickup trucks turning towards Gayrettepe without going to Mecidiyeköy, because in Şişli a group of about a thousand people, mostly old aunts from the CHP and socialist youth, were protesting. This was a conspiracy that worked almost everywhere in the country.
There were only a few thousand people in front of the district election boards.
I think this armed show of force went on until they realized that the protests were not very well attended, and then this horde of lumpen organized by someone went back to their lairs. If the protests had been strong, they probably had a plan B in the bag!
The reason I am telling you this is to give an answer to those conformists who criticize the opposition parties, especially the CHP, from their armchairs saying, “The cowards couldn't take to the streets, they couldn't get the referendum canceled”!
The opposition party staff knew that none of these blah, blah, blah people had enough sense to know that if they made such a call, very few people would come out except for the few thousand people who made up the mass of a few thousand people. So I am almost certain that there could not have been such a large protest under the conditions of that day. On April 16th, it was difficult to find enough observers at the ballot boxes, let alone that!
If 70 percent are not at all satisfied with this regime...
What happened as a result? With a referendum decision, the will of the nation was struck, its honor was violated and 18 articles of the constitution were changed.
Since that day, we have been watching what has been happening in Turkey. It is useless to curse and lament what happened a few years ago! Which for some reason we as a nation are very fond of. We are masters of verbal bravado and arabesque!
However, it is also a fact that while at that day at least 55 percent of this nation was against this vague presidential system, today this rate is at least 70 percent... Again, the number of people who believe that this regime is illegitimate has reached 60 percent.
This presents an opportunity for the opposition bloc to target the regime, to move the issue beyond a party issue, to put illegitimacy on the agenda and keep it on the agenda. To be offensive instead of defensive...
In this respect, it is a very valuable initiative for the IYI Party, the Innovation Party, the CHP and the Victory Party to take the YSK's decision taken years ago to court. It is also important that the application was made to the Ankara 45th Civil Court of First Instance...
‘The issue of ’National Will‘ and ’National Honor'
Lawyer Sevdagül Tunçer, a member of the General Administrative Board of the Zafer Party, shared a video in which she clearly explained her reasoning for making this application:
“The real irregularity was committed in that referendum, which changed the fate of 86 million people and was never accepted in the conscience of the society, and this issue is not only a matter of law, but also a matter of national will and national honor. While I consider it my duty to protect the national will, I also find it meaningful as a member of the opposition to make a note in history against the government's hostile criminal law practices as well as hostile procedural law practices.”.
Isn't that right?
Creating a social movement from political parties to citizens
If this application does not remain on the scale of political parties, but if citizens come together and multiply these cases, it is possible to open a new front against the illegal practices of this regime. The socialization of this objection will provide a golden opportunity to question the regime.
I can almost hear the reactions of a few pedants from the so-called opposition crowd, who still have no intention of putting their hands to the wheel, saying, “What's the big deal, as if the court is going to invalidate the referendum?”.
Here is my answer: “No, brother, we are not stupid. Of course, everyone knows that such a decision will not come out of the court. The point is to ensure that both the regime and the dependent judiciary are questioned, and from now on, to move the issue from a fight against the AK Party to a regime problem”.
This is the golden opportunity, and it will also be an important opportunity for this opposition to reconsolidate.
It is time to organize first other opposition parties, then civil society organizations and individual citizens to apply to the courts... This is the opportunity to take the political struggle to the next level. I know and hope that there are more than enough patriots in this country who will make the necessary efforts!...