A week ago on Friday the landmark Turkish court ruling about the “Balyoz” (Sledgehammer) case initially resulted in handing down three 20-year plus another 214 extended sentences, respectively, for a corresponding number of 217 individuals no longer alleged but by now found guilty of being some of the masterminds behind underground networks intent on creating havoc in the country. More arrests followed some days later, adding to the original number.
Hence, is Ergenekon & Co. really a thing of the past?
The answer is “no.” Those arrested and charged relied on manipulating the minds and souls of hundreds of thousands if not millions more and in particular innocent “followers” who were lured into believing that what the democratically elected government of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (and other’s before, think 1960 or 1997) had in store was bad for Turkey. Hence, even if coup plotters supposedly disapprove of the ordinary man on the street, they need support from large segments of exactly that — according to them — otherwise negligible public. An often-overlooked detail is that they rely on figuratively speaking foot soldiers or in other words, passive supporters, with some of them being more passive, and others some more “actively passive.” I shall try to explain this paradox in this contribution without putting undue blame on any individual, ordinary Turkish citizen who was led to believe things that were ultimately wrong. Turkey is not the only country where this happened or can happen (again).
Two types of passive supporters
One type of passive supporter to be increasingly found in a limited number of European countries yet hopefully in a decreasing fashion here in Turkey is the kind of person who never really cared too much about anything except his own four walls. The government is from a parallel universe earmarked for those in power and as they think they as ordinary citizens will never get any slice of the share of being in power anyway, it is nothing to be bothered with. Governments come and go, they say, and who cares if a more radical, aka totalitarian, version takes over? Will they in turn take away my own four walls? No way! Yet, will they perhaps have a reason to ask me to vote for them, too, as apparently someone else is intent on taking away those very same four walls? No better scapegoat than “leftists” or “Islamists” to radicalize a society and make our passive supporters prone to become aficionados of a more totalitarian way of life. The “others” are of course the bad guys, so let us socialize only with the “good” guys. Who are the good guys? Of course, the new government or those who tell us that the present one is dangerous.
Dangerous, yet legally speaking still ‘innocent’: ‘active passive supporters’
Can someone be an “active, passive supporter”? Of course you can. This time, most probably with a stronger focus on Turkey — let us think times are rough or someone tells you they are rough. Think the economy is indeed not as good as it should be. You never thought of swapping hats to turn into a supporter of a less democratically inclined political movement, but here they are. They argue that your lifestyle is at risk because a government is in power or may have serious chances to come to power that would shred your ideological life into pieces. You are no longer afraid of the well-being of your own four walls, but your country’s four borders. You want to be alone, so to speak — hence, when totalitarian protagonists tell you that the outside world is bad, you tend to agree as you always wanted the outside world to stay out of your own four walls in the first place. Now you think twice and no longer only your own four walls but also your country’s four borders are apparently at risk. Who is the culprit: domestic leftists, Marxists, America, but, worst of all, religious segments of society — Islamists! If that does not do the trick, those behind the totalitarian movement will deliberately create chaos by posing as leftists and foreigners and, in particular, missionaries in order to make sure that you swallow the pill that reads on the package: Never trust foreigners! Never trust leftists! Fight off any religious notion in society. Do not trust politicians who openly promote being a Muslim. Only work with White Turks, who (for the wrong reasons) herald (the otherwise impeccable) Mustafa Kemal Atatürk!
But they still do not buy weapons. They stay under the radar. They look innocent yet hope for domestic turmoil instigated by others. They are not terrorists by definition but could be charged with abetting criminals. But even this is hypothetical — unless we monitor each and every private mobile phone and e-mail exchange not just in Turkey but all over the world.
The real offenders: those manipulating both types
A combination of those who think the current government is a threat to the peace enjoyed within the walls of their own home, plus those who look slightly beyond that cliché but are duped into believing that not only their home but the entire country is at risk, make for the lethal mix of a potentially fatal number of passive as well as active, passive supporters who help to create the mindset that military intervention in civil politics is necessary and good as all civilian elected leaders have messed up or are about to mess up once again.
Yet how come my commentator’s sixth sense stays on the highest alert, in particular after Friday’s anticipated verdict?
Let me tell you why. Last Friday, en route to court many not-as-yet-found-guilty individuals were waving at spectators as if they were Hollywood A-listers. And the media happily obliged, taking shots and publishing them, too.
And exactly this sense of display of either ignorance or anticipated strength, or both, makes me worry — could it perhaps be that they think that one of their “friends” will complete what they could not accomplish? In other words, are there still coup plotters alive and kicking right amongst us? Where do they live? What professions, if outside the military, do they have? Where does their money come from? Or are there only the two types of passive supporters who just wait in the wings until someone new, even more successfully totalitarian comes along? And who could that person be?
Or have both types of passive supporters learned their lessons and realized that their very own four walls are safer than ever and that Turkey as a country has had its coming of age, too, and hence have once more become an integral part of mainstream Turkish society? The task for our elected politicians is to keep it that way — colossal, but possible.
(Today’s Zaman)
