Lessons From Turkey’s Failed Coup 1

by Eze Eluchie,

A common theme and image that comes out from the now failed attempt to depose of the Tayyip Erdogan-led government in Turkey, was the exceptional restraint shown by the coupists when confronted by unarmed civilians. The soldiers, well armed, some in fortified armoured tanks, occupying strategic positions that placed them, generally, at an advantageous position from counter-attacks from other soldiers who might want to oppose the coup, simply choose not to open fire on their unarmed civilian compatriots.

There is no doubt what would have transpired if the coupist-soldiers had been confronted by equally armed soldiers - there would have been a bloody shoot-out that would have further polarized the Turkish society and perhaps activated a hasty descent into civil war.

The narrative on the coup would, no doubt, have been quite different if the soldiers had upon meeting resistance by unarmed civilians decided to shoot. The civilian would have been massacred. The high fatalities recorded would have either spurred greater resistance (or more bloodshed) or served to cow resistance and thus ensure that the coup succeeded.

The refusal by the soldiers to stand their grounds against unarmed civilians stands the coupist-soldiers as persons who generally understand their role as defenders of the State/people and not robots who simply obey the orders of their superiors. There clearly is a filial connection between the People of Turkey and the Turkish Military.

Considering that virtually all the key institutions of the Turkish State had been taken over by the coupists or soldiers loyal to them within a few hours of the coup, it will be clearly illusory for the present Turkish rulership to ascribe the failure of the coup bid in any way to itself or its popularity.

What was the secret? Turkey is broadly speaking a nation, as opposed to being a multi-national contraption with every component of the contraption striving to outdo the other even at the detriment of the whole.

What would have been the outcome if a similar situation was to play out in a contraption, as we have across Sub Sahara Africa, where the co-inhabitants feel foisted upon each other and there is no sense of nationhood? The soldiers would have gleefully shot, crushed and vanquished all unarmed civilians in their range. Going by the way security operatives in most Sub Sahara African countries clearly look forward to using live bullets on the population they are supposed to protect and whose taxes found their existence, the nightmarish and bloody outcome of physically blocking tanks, confronting armed coup plotters and their agents, in such countries is not difficult to realize.

Until we have nation-states in Africa, any group of opportunistic soldiers who have access to requisite armoury with sufficient number of sadistic soldiers in their midst who would not mind mowing down a couple of thousand civilians on their path to power, can and will, under appropriate conditions, stage successful coup d’etats. To prevent coup d'etats from reoccurring across Sub Sahara African states, the countries in that region simply have to be restructured to meet the qualities of nation-states.

Erdogan’s treatment of the coupists who, rather than spill more Turkish blood on Turkish streets, voluntarily surrendered, will go a long way to determine the eventual outcome of the botched coup. The seeming survival of the Erdogan junta is merely a minuscule temporary outcome. 

Tomorrow yet comes.

Picture: Unarmed civilians confront armed soldiers in Turkey.