Turkey is in turmoil this week in the wake of the short-lived coup attempt last Friday. Sibel Kose, a Turkish-Canadian activist had only returned from a visit to her native country on Monday. By Friday she was held captive by the televised coverage of the coup, and stunned to be able to watch it live on television. “It was like a show of a coup. I was shocked.”
“It was like a show of a coup. I was shocked.”
Kose says this is unusual. Having lived through previous coups during her childhood, she says normally there is no information released, that those in charge of the coup, seize control of the media. During this recent attempt, however, she said it was the opposite, with President Erdogan encouraging people to go out into the street to fight against the takeover.
Kose says Erdogan is the primary beneficiary of what she describes as the “so-called coup”. Now that 50,000 people have been dismissed, and many imprisoned, Kose describes it all as a great manipulation; that as Erdogan stands heroic he is wiping out any and all opposition.
“My friends they are still scared living there, they are all thinking about finding a way to leave the country.” Kose says. It’s being reported that academics are now forbidden to leave the country, but Kose clarifies that no one is allowed to leave, without official permission and registration.
“We have to find a way to prevent that Turkey turns into Iran”
For herself, Kose must face the reality that her recent visit may have been her last for some time, as her activism has already made her a target with Erdogan supporters here in Quebec. As a known opponent of the AKP and Erdogan, she was attacked three years ago, and has endured ongoing death threats since. She says if she goes back, she knows she will be detained.
Listen“It’s a weird feeling… I don’t feel bad because I cannot go back, I feel bad for my family and friends who cannot live a normal life anymore; they are scared going out.” Kose says. She describes an incident on Saturday where a couple of young people having a beer and a glass of wine in a cafe, were attacked for not being religious.
Sibel Kose’s reading of the situation is what many international observers are now contemplating. She believes the coup was planned and that Erdogan was aware of the event, and able to turn it to his advantage.
As for the power of the exiled Muslim cleric, Fethullah Gulen, who escaped to the United States in 1999, Kose is not convinced. When the secular authorities at the time, feared Gulen’s growing influence in Turkey and accused him of plotting a takeover, he settled in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania with CIA assistance.
Considered a moderate Sufi Muslim cleric, Gulen was embraced by the US for his openess to interfaith dialogue, his support for improved relations with Israel and his opposition to the more radical Islamist movements such as Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.
Despite his absence, Gulen’s influence continued to grow. He is said to have encouraged his religious followers to inflitrate all levels of the Turkish bureaucracy.
In an interview in the New York Times yesterday, James F. Jeffrey, a former American ambassador to Turkey who is now at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, described Gulen’s followers as a “cult like” movement. And while no one seems to be able to quantify the evolution, it is acknowledged his followers have inflitratee the police force and the judiciary.
“They are a state within a state,” Jeffrey said. “They have infiltrated many places.”
Kose however, does not see Gulen as the threat he is being made out to be. She says it’s impossible that the “Gulenists” would plan a coup with such a small military contingent.
“We have to remember one thing; Erdogan and Gulen, they were very close, they walked those roads together for fifty years.” Kose says. They split just three years ago. She is not convinced of the animosity that now has Erdogan demanding the United States hand over Gulen as the matermind of the coup.
Sibel Kose wants Canada to continue to bring pressure to bear on Turkey and to push for people’s civil rights, freedom of speech and the right to due process for those imprisoned. “We have to find a way to prevent that Turkey turns into Iran” Kose says.
And while the competing ambitions of Erdogan and Gulen have put the United States in the middle of the conflict, in less than a week, with the backdrop of a presidential campaign like no other, times have gotten much more interesting.
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