Every cloud has a silver lining

By Denizcan Seferoğlu

Utkutan Kızıltaş, 12, was watching TV on the evening of July 15 in Turkey, when he came to realise that the Turkish Parliament along with other public institutions were being bombed by helicopters and fighter jets being operated by the coup plotters.

Indeed, he did not know the meaning of "coup" until that time. He searched for it on the internet. And he found out that it was a bad thing. Utkutan watched the bombing of the National Assembly with sorrow. Then, he decided to send all of his accumulated pocket money to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan with a letter, in which he requested him to use the money for the reconstruction of the Parliament.

Unfortunately, the new Turkish generation has become acquainted with the concept of terrorist military coup. There are several features of this coup which will be marked down in world political history.

Firstly, for the first time ever, having clandestinely infiltrated the State throughout the decades, terrorists disguised in army uniforms targeted their own people directly and brutally with heavy weapons that includes 35 planes, 37 helicopters, 74 tanks, 246 armoured vehicles, three warships and 3,992 light weapons.

This amount of armament, which was used during the coup attempt is even larger than the inventories of several European Union (EU) member countries. By using these, the traitors martyrised around 250 innocent civilians without blinking an eye. Secondly, the Turkish people stood against the coup attempt in such a brave manner that they were able to halt it with their bare hands within hours.

This is unprecedented in modern history. And thirdly, the national unity, solidarity and political consensus in the defence of democracy and independence displayed by the Turkish people is unequalled.

Since the night of the coup attempt, around 10 million people have been out at democracy rallies to defend Turkish democracy against FETÖ (Fetullahist Terrorist Organisation) and the masterminds behind it, which staged the treacherous coup attempt. At the same time, the Turkish State with all its organs has embarked upon a comprehensive fight against this terrorist clandestine network to save the constitutional democratic order.

In this vital combat in defence of democracy and national will, Turkey has been wishing to get its allies' and partners' support in the spirit of solidarity.

However, even since the night of the coup, some of our partners from the West employed a "wait and see" policy, whereby in the first hours of the coup, they avoided prompt condemnations considering the likelihood that the putsch may well succeed.

Moreover, these countries maintained their unprincipled attitudes in the post-coup process as well, by merely focusing on the well-being of the coup plotters rather than voicing support for the hundreds deceased and thousands wounded. They started to condemn the coup plot, though grudgingly, only after it had been averted and by giving irrelevant advice through sentences beginning with "but".

Just as some of our friends failed to pass this sincerity test on democracy, so too the mainstream media frustrated the Turkish nation with its undemocratic and unethical stance vis-à-vis the treacherous coup attempt.

On the night of July 15, Turkish President, Prime Minister and some high-ranking army officers were expressing that what was going on was an illegal upheaval by a terrorist faction embedded within the armed forces. Recurrently, however, some international mainstream media outlets had already surrendered the country to the putschists!

They were broadcasting the developments live in a prejudiced and inaccurate way. This distorted reflection of the reality led to a misreading of the overall coup process by the world public opinion, which is an insult to them as it prevents their right of freedom of information in line with international law.

The fact that ruling and opposition parties signed a joint declaration condemning the coup on the next day and that the whole nation, including the main opposition parties (CHP and MHP) took part in the August 7 democracy rally, were simply overlooked. These controlled media organs, which advertised the terrorist coup plot minute-by-minute on July 15 and even went so far as to claim that President Erdoğan was seeking refuge from Germany, preferred not to broadcast live the five-million strong democracy rally.

This media manipulation indicates the ignorance of professional standards and ethical principles of journalism, as well as a deliberate slandering when it comes to Turkey. The overall stand of some members of the international community who consider themselves to be champions of democracy in this whole process is a "black stain" on their history of democracy.  

During this extraordinary period, Turkey will continue to uphold democracy, rule of law, freedoms and human rights. Although the bloody coup attempt which was orchestrated and staged by FETÖ caused ordeals, Turkey, Turkish democracy and the economy have now turned out to be much more powerful and resilient thanks to the unprecedented spirit of national unity and solidarity emerged as a reaction to this treachery.

Having been witnessed in the past one month, 10 million Turkish people have guarded democracy peacefully out in the squares and streets all over the country, from now on lectures on democratic standards by these countries targeting others will have a credibility problem. Every cloud has a silver lining; the despicable coup attempt has revealed that Turkey has dauntless and patriotic democracy guardians like little Utkutan.

The writer is the Third Secretary at the Embassy of Turkey in Kampala