TÜRKÇE
  Updated: 26/07/2016

Statement by Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator Ömer Çelik on the Coup Attempt by FETÖ

Statement by Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator Ömer Çelik on the Coup Attempt by FETÖ

(23 July 2016)

Discussions have been ongoing for a long while on this issue both in Türkiye and the world. What we have already known so far, has become clear for us once again with the recent developments. There has been a terrorist attack against the Turkish democracy driven by a deviant enthusiasm in favour of a religious dictatorship based on a deviant religious understanding.

This deviant religious understanding belongs to a group which considers itself as the authority for every decision, and as the centre of truth in every issue, and which defines itself within a theological frame and tries to transform Türkiye into a military dictatorship, and thus conducts hostile attacks and actions against our democracy.

Our democracy has confronted the most severe threat of its history. Civil movements have a history of 200 years. An attack as brutal as this one, which targets people and the national will is unprecedented in the world history.

The extent of our people's reaction to this brutal attack has definitely the potential to rewrite the world democracy history.

When threats towards democratic administrations are evaluated within history, it is impossible to find such a structure which has tried to infiltrate the state apparatus and which has infiltrated into the armed forces and security structure to such a degree.

The serial killer plotters wearing military uniforms and directly receiving orders from the terrorist organization leader, who tries to base his enthusiasm for dictatorship on religious concepts he exploits, have opened fire on our people.

They tried to kill our President. They bombarded the Turkish Grand National Assembly and tried to kill the MPs. They conducted an attack on the legitimate Prime Minister of the Turkish Republic. They threatened the ministers of the Turkish Republic with death.

We have to make it clear that Fethullah Gülen, the leader of this terrorist organization, is more dangerous than Usama Bin Ladin. Usama Bin Ladin conducted terrorist attacks while speaking of the terrorism threat. However, Fethullah Gülen, constantly hiding behind soft concepts such as tolerance and dialogue,  leads an extremely dangerous terrorist organization. We are confronted with an organization which is more dangerous and more brutal than DAESH.

Thus, DAESH directly targets the structures of state via terrorism. However, Fetullah Gülen's terrorist organization tries to destroy the infrastructure and democratic order and democratic institutions of the state and eliminate the people's will and national will by infiltrating and capturing the state internally.

The person we are talking about is not a person who can be extenuated. We are facing a person who hides behind the concepts such as religious tolerance and dialogue, who is more dangerous than Usame Bin Ladin, who organizes the most violent terrorist attacks, and a terrorist organization which fires upon the innocent people in the streets.

It is significant that the primary aim of this attempt is to end to the democratic structure of the Turkish Republic and to overthrow the president and the legitimate government of the Turkish Republic. But when we take a look at the big picture, we see that the situation is even worse. It is quite clear that the aim is to make Türkiye a part of the instability in Iraq and Syria, transform Türkiye into a country that is incapable of fighting against terrorist organizations such as DAESH, PKK and DHKP/C and drift Türkiye into a state of chaos that would last for years.

I would like to underline that those who call on Türkiye for stability and to refrain from violence, should first of all fight against this structure which tries to destabilize Türkiye, drag Türkiye to this violent atmosphere and to make Türkiye become a part of this instability in the Middle East.

The lives of our President and his family were threatened. The Turkish Parliament was bombarded from air. The premises of the government were attacked. The most grave and grievous thing is that, the civilians were killed by those murderers and serial killers wearing military uniforms provided by our State. They killed their own fellow soldiers. They killed brave Turkish police officers.

Innocent civilians were killed. During this process in which our close friends lost their lives, our citizens' gathering in the streets and squares to protect the democracy and the elected and legitimate government has been an historical event. This is a turning point in terms of the world's democratic history and the civilian movements. Throughout the world's democratic history, no one has witnessed a nation take the risk of dying by walking towards the tanks, F16 jets and arms; a nation embracing democracy, while waving flags.

A nation took the risk of dying in order to protect their national will, legitimacy and national sovereignty and they defeated the plotters. All the process is a very important example of demonstrating how democracy has been internalised by the Turkish nation and how they live up to the democratic values. It also demonstrates the strength of Turkish democracy and its institutions.

From now on, we will put much more emphasis on this. For people who demand democracy and elections, and who oppose dictatorships, coups and custodies, this resistance will forever be a source of inspiration.

We take this opportunity to thank all our foreign allies cooperating with us and sending us messages of support. It is beyond doubt that the democratic values, as universal values, are our common values. We are all proud that democratic values of Türkiye, a strong European country and a European democracy, are embraced as well as our people, who have always been a source of inspiration for the oppressed people in history.

However, we are surprised that our allies and friends have not yet visited Türkiye although a week has already passed since the coup attempt. As the Minister for EU Affairs, I personally would have expected the officials of the European Commission, European Parliament, and European Council to visit Türkiye, stand by the Turkish statesmen, and to speak up in Ankara for the democratic values of Türkiye and also for our common values.

Certainly, the values that have been assaulted are our common values. Today, under NATO, many countries in the various parts of the world send their troops to operations to protect these values. Following the attack against the democratic values of Türkiye, I would have expected our allies to visit Ankara to address the Turkish people, at the level of heads of the state or the government, presidents or officials of the parliaments.

There is no doubt that we have the power to embrace our democracy. We also have the power to protect our democracy. We certainly thank those sending messages of support. However, if they had visited Türkiye and gave a message to the world standing by our President, our Prime Minister, we could also have given a strong message to the terrorist organizations, with a deep symbolic meaning in terms of solidarity for democratic values.

Moreover, I strongly reject the approach of criticizing the coup attempt with one sentence, but questioning the commitment of the President of the Republic of Türkiye, the Government and our Prime Minister to democratic values in long paragraphs.

It is not reasonable to criticize the coup attempt with a sentence and to question the democratic values of Türkiye with ten sentences. Türkiye is not a country avoiding criticisms. As I have always said, any country can criticize any other. They can also criticize Türkiye, as criticism is a part of culture of democracy. I want to restate once more that we carefully distinguish between democratic criticism and opposition to Türkiye. However, we strongly reject the statements criticising the coup attempt with a phrase but proceeding with a "but" or "yet" and questioning the democratic values of our President, Prime Minister and our Government.

It is the time for the world to repeat the sentence that we used for the attacks in France. What did we say then? "We unconditionally condemn this horrible terrorist attack in the strongest possible terms. We unconditionally stand together with France and its people". That is what needs to be said today, as well.

Everyone who praises democratic values should strongly salute and applaud this fight for democracy made by a nation who has written a page in history, losing their lives, lying in front of the tanks and resisting against F16s for democracy. Therefore, we hope that the sentences used with "but", "however", will not raise doubts about world's commitment to democratic values and the value given to democracy in Türkiye.

Clearly there is no doubt that Turkish democracy is not weaker than any other democracy; it is protected through a stronger social awareness and it will be protected with a stronger institutional infrastructure.

It is for certain that the state of emergency was declared in the past in order to restrict the democracy. However today, in view of the violence of the attack we are facing, we have decided to declare state of emergency as a security wall, a preventive wall against this coup attempt in order to protect and maintain first, our democratic order, second our rule of law, third the rights and freedoms of our citizens and fourth our social peace. This is a decision taken within the scope of law.

Furthermore, the Ministry for European Union Affairs has an extensive legal knowledge in this respect. When Article 15 of ECHR is compared with the legal arrangements inscribed in Article 15 of our Constitution, which stipulates the rights that cannot be restricted in state of emergency, it is clearly observed that the legal arrangement in Constitution of Türkiye is much more liberal and it is much more praiseworthy in terms of European Union values.   Therefore, nobody can comment that democratic rights and freedoms are suspended in Türkiye and Türkiye is tending towards an authoritarian regime.

Dear friends, we keep up-to-date with the developments in the whole world. We are following very carefully all the political developments throughout the world. Defending democracy is not recommending to the “parties” to avoid violence on such an occasion. This is to put the democratic government and the coup attempt in equal terms. Such a call could only be made to the coup plotters, not to all the parties. I want to remind you that when you make such a call to the parties, this stance would be similar to the one taken for the coup plotter Sisi. We strongly reject a stance similar to the one on the coup plotter Sisi, to be taken for the democratic government of Republic of Türkiye. You cannot inculcate parties. Here, it is the actions of the plotters, the serial killers to be condemned and rejected in this context. In terms of adhering to the democratic values, the real test today is to stand by the government of Turkish Republic, Turkish democracy and Turkish public.

It now imperative for both our allies within the NATO and our stakeholders and partners in the European Union to initiate a new process marking a new milestone within the context of this fight for democracy, to embrace and to express more solidarity with the Turkish democracy, to give messages which are in harmony with the democratic struggle of the Turkish people and to formulate action plans with a view to strengthening cooperation among our democratic institutions and bringing them closer.

Today Türkiye has demonstrated that it is at the forefront of protecting democratic values in the world, which are also represented in the European Union, by standing up to the tanks, bullets and F16 jet fighters. Adhering so strongly to the democratic values is an honour and source of pride for everyone who believes in democratic values.

We state this loudly and clearly. We did this in the past, too. We visited those countries stricken by the terrorist attacks immediately and showed solidarity with them. What is needed today is not to question commitment of the President of the Turkish Republic, the Prime Minister and our Government to the democratic values. This questioning indicates a covert support for the coup plotters.

Today is the time to stay on the side of our democracy unconditionally. It is now time to come here and to give a democratic message to the world standing side by side with the President of the Turkish Republic and the Head of the Government. It is now time to be on the side of the will of the Turkish public unconditionally.

It is beyond doubt that this struggle for democracy has introduced a new gain in terms of the common values we all share with the European Union and the world. This is a gain not only for Türkiye. It is also a gain for all the peoples who believe in democracy. It is a gain for all the countries governed by democracy. It is an important action also for the future of the NATO armies to clear the Turkish army, which is part of the NATO, of the enthusiasm to establish a military dictatorship based on such a deviant religious understanding. Therefore expressing solidarity with Türkiye today, will also be critical for the future of the NATO which is our common security umbrella.

Once more we thank all the countries which demonstrated solidarity with Türkiye and embraced our democracy. We particularly wish God's mercy upon our citizens who lost their lives, and who have become the heroes and heroines of our fight for democracy. We express our gratitude for all our citizens who are on a democracy and homeland watch and who embrace the national will as an honour, from the late hours of the night to the early hours of the morning, filling up the squares together with their families.

Thank you.


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Updated: 26/07/2016 / Hit: 6,356