It’s been a little more than a week since elements in Turkey’s military attempted to overthrow the elected government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a coup. That attempt failed and up to 300 people were killed in the 10-hour chaos that saw jets buzzing the Bosphorus Bridge, tanks shelling the Turkish parliament and a helicopter shot down by air force missiles.
While the exact motive remains unclear, Erdogan himself is under no illusions and has blamed the coup attempt on supporters of reclusive cleric Fethullah Gulen, who lives in exile in a Pennsylvania estate. Subsequently, Erdogan’s judicial officials have filed extradition papers with the United States in an attempt to hold Gulen to account, but officials in Washington have dismissed the papers filed as not of substance, falling short of the burden of claims needed to open extradition proceedings and of being nothing more than assembled newspaper clippings and opinion pieces.
More dangerously, however, Erdogan has used the failed coup attempt as an excuse to consolidate power and concentrate matters of state into his own hands. For the past four years, Erdogan has set about tinkering with the terms of Turkey’s secular constitution and has attempted to create a presidential-style government, where he and his executive branch control the mechanisms of state. For supporters of the principles of secularism — and the military is the backbone of protecting those ideals — Erdogan’s ambitions are dangerous and a step too far for the Republic of Turkey.
In the wake of the failed coup, Ergodan’s government has rounded up an estimated 10,000 people and held them for questioning. Additionally, some 60,000 civil service employees have been dismissed, 2,700 members of the judiciary fired, hundreds of private schools shuttered and an estimated 20,000 private teachers put out of work.
On top of this, Erdogan has invoked a state of emergency, giving his office the power to rule Turkey by decree for three months, a period that can be extended for a second three-month period.
All of these teachers, civil servants and judges were not responsible for the bloody events in Istanbul and Ankara. They are simply deemed to be opponents of the Ergodan government, those who dared to speak out of turn, or teach a view that might run contrary to the actions of Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party.
On invoking the state of emergency, Turkey also said it was suspending its participation in the European Convention on Human Rights, an international agreement meant to protect human rights and freedoms. That act alone is the most telling now.