sendika.org
The crowds in Harbiye, Taksim, Saraçhane and in
front of the Istanbul Police Station on Vatan Avenue on the night of 15
July were neither the force that stopped the coup nor interested in
protecting democracy
There has been a claim making the rounds among government supporters
and some sections of the opposition since the momentous events of 15
July: “The attempted coup of 15 July was stopped by the people
exercising their right to resistance for democracy.”
This is wrong on two fronts. First, the factor that stopped the coup
was not the resistance from civilians pouring onto the streets; second,
the resistance of the civilians hitting the streets was not in the name
of democracy.
This coup attempt was destined to failure because it failed to secure
support from the United States and the European Union, proceeded
without support from the General Staff and was conducted with such poor
planning that it failed to exercise even a minimum amount of control
over the tools of communication.
Given that Turkey’s is a NATO army, it is well-nigh impossible for
the army to conduct a successful coup against the wishes of the US and
EU (that is, NATO) and the top military brass.
The civilians that hit the streets against the stillborn coup were
not engaged in resistance against putschists but fought as
reinforcements for the police in a battle between two elements of the
government, while being deployed to the front as a shield or a canary in
the mines – taking their share of the bullets in the process in certain
areas.
It is also important to note that a portion of these “civilians”
drawn from the ranks of the supporters of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
and the Justice and Development Party (AKP) were members of Islamist
organizations close to the government that have sprouted with the wars
in Syria and Iraq, as well as members of religious brotherhoods
(tariqat).
Moreover, despite the direct calls of the government, the religious
exploitation of mosques by the Religious Affairs Directorate (Diyanet)
in mobilizing for the government, and the armed protection of the
police, the crowds that hit the street were negligible in terms of their
numbers and ability to resist. In comparison to the participants in the
Gezi Park uprising, a barometer as far as the AKP is concerned, it
wasn’t even in the same league.
According to the state’s own estimates, millions of people poured
onto the streets during the Gezi Resistance – drawing merely on the
people’s own resources in spite of oppressive state terror. Even with
the most generous estimate, no more than several hundred thousand people
hit the streets on the night of 15 July, even though the government,
police services, Diyanet and municipalities offered all manners of
encouragement, protection and support to the mobilization.
Who was on the streets of Istanbul?
We had a chance to observe the crowds on the streets from Harbiye to
Taksim and from Saraçhane to the Istanbul Police Station on Vatan Avenue
on the night of 15 July. On display were crowds marked by religious
attire that displayed a discipline that was evident from their marching
to their slogans but who were limited in number. Many in the crowds
conspicuously lacked experience in mass resistance, and many appeared
uncomfortable, timid and awkward in the situation.
The crowds dispersed when the clashes intensified and could only
reassemble when security was re-established. The “militancy” of such
crowds was confined to places in which soldiers surrendered, weapons
were not fired and tanks did not roll. Such “militancy” also showcased
itself in the form of lynching conscripts who had surrendered, slitting
their throats and posing for pictures on the top of tanks after the
danger had passed.
This crowd, which was carelessly described as “resistors for
democracy” by the ruling and opposition parties during a General
Assembly in parliament on 16 July, consisted of a fascist mass that sees
no problem in the anti-democratic nature of the government even as it
defended it against an anti-democratic coup attempt, featured not
anti-coup protesters but fanatical AKP supporters and shouted slogans in
favor of sharia and the return of capital punishment instead of
democracy.
This crowd was one that would not insist on fighting a fight it knew
it would lose, but easily descended into barbarism when victory was
assured, holding a knife to the throat of those surrendering.
Who defended the Istanbul Police Station?
When we approached the Istanbul Police Station on Vatan toward 02.30
in the night, we observed that it was not police cars that had blocked
the way but municipal vehicles. In a number of areas, municipalities
were sending more work vehicles to form barricades than the police.
Men with religious attire were very prominent amid the crowd waiting
in front of the station. Agitators continually sought to convince the
crowd to stay, saying, “Our only armed force is the police; don’t leave –
this is where we are for today.” Accompanying the calls of the
agitators were shouts of “death to the putschist officers.” In tandem
with unceasing calls from the mosques, the crowds in religious attire
marched in a disciplined cortege toward the police station. The extent
of the AKP’s celebration of democracy was to shout slogans in favor of
shariah law against a coup that had already been doomed to failure!
Until it became clear that the coup attempt would not succeed, the
civilians on the street displayed hesitation, while the police presence
was below expectations. The putschist soldiers were demobilized and
forced to surrender not so much because of determined resistance but
because potential supporters, especially the military brass of the
Turkish Armed Forces, left the insurgents isolated.
It is of critical importance to note the hesitant reaction of the
police and the crowd in the face of the coup attempt from the AKP’s
perspective. It should come as a surprise to no one if the police are
targeted in operations in the near future. As for the crowds, they are
gaining courage from stories of cheap heroism that were made possible by
the defeat of the enemy.
Democratic resistance
The Erdoğan-AKP supporters that hit the street on 15 July are being
held up as role models for the entire AKP grassroots with exaggerated
suggestions that they displayed resistance for democracy. Leaving aside
the overt images of barbarism and lynchings, most of the images
published in the media purporting to show “massive resistance for
democracy” were staged. We witnessed one of these staged scenes during
the night in an almost empty Taksim Square.
“Soldiers shot at the ground, and one bullet ricocheted and hit us.
Come and look,” one person wounded by a soldier’s bullet said. A
correspondent for Habertürk immediately arrived on the scene and began
to herald the ostensible massive resistance for democracy against the
coup. The reporter’s first attempt was unsuccessful when a woman waving a
flag behind the injured protester failed to control herself and started
smiling. A second attempt failed when the injured man failed to say
what the reporter wanted. On the third attempt, even though the injured
man said, “The soldiers shot into the ground and then it hit us,” a
number of times, the reporter continued to say, “The soldiers shot
directly at you, no?” Exhausted, the injured man finally gave up and
said “yes.”
We have no desire to make the violence or the coup attempt appear
innocent, caricaturize the battles or trivialize the deaths. But what we
witnessed was an anti-democratic coup attempt doomed to failure being
faced by a government and its grassroots acting with equally
anti-democratic impulses. The AKP, which called its grassroots onto the
street “until the problem is solved,” is now looking to turn the
incident to its advantage and force its own dictatorial project on
society by presenting it as “a democratic movement that comes from the
people below.”
It is necessary to expose the lie that the “15 July coup attempt was
stopped by the people using their democratic right to resistance,” as
well as the fascist nature of the crowds that sprang into action, to
defeat the AKP’s attempts to impose a dictatorship.
Ultimately, it behoves everyone who says no to both a coup and an
Islamist dictatorship to remember the third option presented at Gezi as a
model for resisting for democracy.