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Movie Review: Piece by Piece 
November 21, 2024 Movie Review: Piece by Piece
November 14, 2024 "Humor on the Margins: Cartoons in the Turkish Jewish Newspaper Şalom" by Rakel P. Meşulam
November 7, 2024 The "Ottoman and Turkish Ketubbot" Exhibition
November 4, 2024 TV Show Review: Nobody Wants This
November 1, 2024 The Irresistible Drunkenness of Reading Books
Antidote for Coup
When I woke up to a coup on the morning of September 12, 1980, I was totally ‘devastated’ thinking that the free environment I had been living in for a year at Bogazici University was going to endİvo MOLİNAS
When I woke up to a coup on the morning of September 12, 1980, I was totally ‘devastated’ thinking that the free environment I had been living in for a year at Bogazici University was going to end. After the initial shock, I had started to read books about the 1960 coup in search for a coup’s impacts on democratic life and the duration of such impacts. On the other hand, parents were happy that the risk of their children being killed on the streets was gone. We were faced with a Turkey irony.
I had come to accept that normalization would take long, but also believed in the 2000’s, that no one would ever dare to make another coup considering the unprecedented damages the coups had inflicted on our country. Furthermore, in the 2010’s my perception of coups and the country’s common perception of coups was that AKP government had ended military tutelage regime once and for all. Wasn’t that the whole country’s perception of coups until the night of July 15, 2016? If anyone would have told us just one day before July 15th, “A military coup can happen at any moment now”, wouldn’t we tell them that they were living in a dream world and furthermore that they were insanely crazy?
In brief, the coup attempt on July 15 came unexpectedly and suddenly like an earthquake and left a huge damage, behind. The only consolation was that it did not accomplish its goal which was to take over the country…
After receiving a text message at around 23.00 telling me to turn on the TV and watch TRT channel, I faced the bitter truth and feeling devastated, I listened to the commentator who was forced to read the military junta declaration at gunpoint: “We have seized control of the country. Martial law is now in effect… There will be curfew...” All those words as if to spite those who believed there could no longer be any coups in the country. I said to myself that after 36 years, we are back to square one, then felt like a black curtain was starting to cover my brain.
Without further ado, eventually we have all seen how this vile coup attempt 78 million people were watching live, evolved. We have seen how armed soldiers shot civilians who stood up to them, mercilessly. However, in the end, the putschists were defeated by resilience of the country’s leaders, the Parliament, the people and the media.
There are many issues still waiting to be uncovered concerning the before and after of the coup attempt. However, how Gulen movement (cemaat) infiltrated to the deepest points of military so easily without being noticed will be discussed for a long time.
From now on, moving forward is going to be hard for Turkey, but not impossible. It’s obvious that all those political and social fractions who have been polarized and differentiated for years, coming together in unity and solidarity against the coup attempt will accelerate Turkey’s recovery. CHP’s stance at its Taksim Rally will also contribute to the process, significantly. The meeting President Erdogan held with party leaders- I wish HDP would have been invited, too- will be the driving force of this recovery process.
The climate of hate created by the polarization in the country, unraveled significantly with the coup attempt, giving great hope to those who love their country. As long as we improve democracy and liberal life, we can bury the coup issue forever just like developed countries and will learn about the history of coups in Turkey only from the history books.
Yes, despite all differences, the spirit of unity and solidarity, more prosperity, more democracy, a more liberal climate will be the antidote for coup. Once we accomplish those, the articles where one writer writes about his/her coup memories from different periods of times, will be history. Inshallah.
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"My luggage has been checked. He smelled everything and rummaged around. In shirts, trousers, handkerchiefs. They were looking for lace and jewelry. Even for banned books. Idiots looking for you in your suitcase! You won´t discover anything here! The contraband traveling with me. I stuck it in my head. And there are a lot of books in my head! I assure you. My head is a chirping bird´s nest. From the confiscated books." Heinrich Heine / Germany. "A Winter´s Tale"
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Do All Organisms Feel Pain?
Scientists have revealed that plants exposed to stress also react like humans and animals do. This is a very important discovery for understanding the universality of pain for all living things.
