Last month, I had criticized General Ilker Basbug, the head of Turkey's armed forces, after he said that the army's patience should not be tested.
Haberturk newspaper has published an interview with Basbug today. In this interview, the general explains what exactly may happen if he loses patience:
"We have a lot of information. We have many documents. We can be forced to share them with the public."
What kind of threat is that? Blackmailing? But against whom? And if revealing them is in the interest of the public, how come a public servant hide those documents now?
* * *
Meanwhile Vatan newspaper has published an exclusive report. Here is the introduction of the story:
"The police have arrested 12 people who were suspected to bring 50 kg of narcotics from Diyarbakir to Istanbul. Mehmet Erdogan, the nephew of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, was among the suspects. Prime Minister Erdogan didn't protect his nephew. He ordered the police 'to do the necessary' and Mehmet was consequently sent to prison."
Isn't this story implicitly telling us that Erdogan was able to protect his nephew, but he didn't do so? So this time he didn't cover up a crime? Thanks for this, your excellency, but what about the inconvenient probabilities about past incidents?
* * *
The Economist has just published an analysis about the latest developments in Turkey, including the so-called Sledgehammer Coup plot. Even though I don't agree with some points of view in this analysis, it is still an interesting summary. And the most striking part is the following words:
“One might feel better about the military’s loss of power if Turkey had a balanced political system with the possibility of alternance of government,” says Eric Edelman, a former American ambassador to Turkey.
This is why I don't like the political trend in Turkey nowadays. As a Turkish citizen, I have never become a coup-mongering militarist, but I also know that the further undermining of the army may give birth to a much more anti-democratic system in civil form, which may be an authoritarianism or even a totalitarianism with a neo-Islamist frame.
As Charles Bukowski says:
"Before you kill something, make sure you have something better to replace it with."
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