The wrath of the streets
It seems like what happened in Egypt is unique to that country, thus it's very difficult to understand what is really going on there and to learn from it. We need to discuss a new situation whose effects will be felt throughout the region.
What we have before us is a new term that has recently been marketed in the international markets: a "good coup" or "legitimate coup." This new term ignores the electoral success of undesired governments. Moreover, it legitimizes overthrowing elected governments by force. And in seeking to achieve their aims, the coup plotters used every available opportunity of "public support" and media power. In Turkey, which suffered great tragedies from military coups, one can easily say that "there is no such thing as a good or bad coup." But how can you explain to the people of a country in which there is no established culture of democracy that a coup is first and foremost a crime against humanity?
In order to gain legitimacy, the plotters of the good coup first seek to secure the support of the people. There is great risk at this point. Although social engineers manipulate the people into protesting in the streets, no one can foresee where these protests will lead. According to the new theory, people don't have to wait for elections. We should look at Egypt, Tunisia and the Middle East from this perspective and try to guess what will happen next. The people rush to famous squares and election results are swept aside. Means of mass communication are used to forge public opinion and legitimize the good coup.
Over the last week, Egypt's military regime decided to implement a never-before-seen strategy and encouraged its supporters to take to the streets. In other words, they have declared that they will pit civilians against one another. This strategy cannot be the result of a moment of anger, because 26 days have passed since the coup. The country is under the military's control. And supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi are continuing their protests in certain areas. It's as if the Egyptian generals were saying, "If the Morsi supporters insist on protesting us, then we will pit our supporters against them and put them in their place.” As a result, 200 people have lost their lives and more than 5,000 people have been injured. Is it possible to treat this deep wound? Won't the Egyptian people continue to suffer from this atrocity for decades to come? Why?
There are several reasons, but the most important result of manipulating people in the Middle East into taking to the streets is the undermining of Islamic political groups' belief in democracy. Even if this isn't their primary goal, it will be the consequence. It's crystal clear that pro-Islam parties are unwelcome in some parts of the world. This is why some countries where democracy is fully established are warm to the idea of the good coup. This is why the military regime in Egypt wasn't satisfied with seizing the government and went a step further, preferring to eliminate social groups they consider dangerous by pitting people against one another. In this way, the regime aims to push promising political groups toward illegality in order to undermine the legitimacy of people who do not surrender to the junta.
All countries in the region should closely follow each step of this staged scenario. In fact, a similar scenario is playing out in Tunisia. The assassination of opposition politician Mohammed Brahmi paved the way for the Tunisian opposition to rush to the streets and protest. We should now try to find out who planned these incidents to get people into the streets.
It is known that coup plotters have always used street demonstrations as a tool to lay the groundwork for coups. Those who wage psychological warfare and want to create the conditions for coups pit the people against one another. Painful experiences in our recent past are the best examples of this. Now we face another situation: In addition to shady operations to get the masses out on the street and pave the way for a coup, the coup administration is settling scores with those who don't surrender to the junta in the streets by pitting coup supporters against them. The street demonstrations that lay the groundwork for coups are part of a plan; pitting the people against one another after the coup might be part of this plan as well. This is why those who act without premeditation and without considering coup plotters' strategy are not only risking their lives but also inadvertently helping those who want to prevent the democratization of the Islamic world. We need to act with great care and patience. We need to consult each other before taking action.
Acting according to the pulse of the people in the streets is the worst decision to make and will have heavy consequences. In order to deal a blow to coup plotters who want to control the Islamic world through new totalitarian regimes, we should act within the democratic and legal systems, avoid social conflicts and object to all illegal actions regardless of their excuses. This is only possible with qualified staff. Those who have been exhausted by infighting cannot achieve this.
It is certain that the wrath of the streets will devour the tyrants, but until that day comes we need to defend innocent people's rights and make it through this critical process without too many problems.
http://todayszaman.com/columnist-322100-the-wrath-of-the-streets.html
Ikhwan teaches democratic lesson
President Mohammad Morsi, who came to power as the first democratically elected president in Egypt, has been ousted by a military coup after one year in office.
Morsi supporters -- the Muslim Brotherhood -- poured into the streets in most cities of the country to protest the military intervention. As you may remember, Morsi made a call for his supporters to resist the coup without resorting to violence. This call raised concerns that the move could set off violent clashes. True, bloody days began, but it was the blood of Muslim Brotherhood members, spilled by the coup makers. On Saturday, Ikhwan leaders announced that they would not rely on violent methods or killing even though hundreds of protestors have been killed.
This is truly admirable. Despite attempts by Defense Minister Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to justify the coup and lure Ikhwan into clashes, Ikhwan is teaching the world a lesson in democracy by relying on civil disobedience and peaceful protests. Ikhwan has a hundred-year history. Two of its important leaders were killed; it is a movement that generally subscribes to civilian and peaceful methods despite sporadic bouts of violence. For this reason, we shouldn't exaggerate Ikhwan's mature attitude too much. But we should confirm that they are showing a fairly commendable democratic stance in Egypt -- and under tough conditions.
The psychological threshold for coups is one month. In other words, if protests don't cease after a month, it becomes hard for the coup to take root. This critical threshold is almost over in Egypt, and this is why Sisi is authorizing violence against Ikhwan supporters: It is his only way out. In this way, the injustice of the coup will be forgotten and the irrational and violent tendencies of “Muslims” will be proven to the coup-supporting Western world. Of course, after this point, violence will be called a method to protect democracy because “Ikhwan left us no other option.”
It would be irrational to categorize the West as coup-friendly because of its pragmatic preference regarding Egypt and to create a new kind of anti-Westernism out of this. Unfortunately, there are frequent clashes between realpolitik and the universal rules of democracy. And Western states justify anti-democratic policies by using media power to convince their people. This happened again when the latest massacre in Egypt was presented as a clash between Sisi and Morsi supporters.
I previously argued that the East and West should overcome 20th century paradigms in their relations with each other. The West should abandon its colonial paradigm and approaches, and the East should no longer view the West as a demon. The West saw the democratic efforts of Muslims in Egypt and Turkey through an outdated lens; this was a huge mistake. For this reason, in the Gezi crisis and Sisi coup, they adopted an unethical stance and made categorical assessments.
In the Gezi crisis, they tended to use the protests in an attempt to prove their biases. Because of this attitude, the Turkish public may become less open to even constructive and reliable criticism.
It's good to see that religious people in Turkey and Egypt are practicing democratic values rather than resorting to violence. They stay away from these traps. This is a source of hope for our common future.
http://todayszaman.com/columnist-322107-ikhwan-teaches-democratic-lesson.html
The royal baby and the Egyptians
As the world turns we continue to witness news, good and bad, from all around our planet.
Last week it was not only the people of the United Kingdom but also that of the rest of the world which waited for the birth of the newest member of the royal family with excitement and curiosity. People bid on the gender, name and even the hair color of the future monarch of the country. And the royal baby finally came on Tuesday. It was a boy! The next day the beautiful family picture of Prince William, his wife Kate and their then unnamed boy made the headlines again all around the world. The frenzy was not over when his name was announced as George, but at least slowed down.
Meanwhile in Egypt, the commander-in-chief of the military, Gen. Sisi, asked the supporters of the military coup to rally against the “violence” in the country. Since the military had overthrown the first democratically elected president of the country, Mohammad Morsi, on July 3, his supporters have filled Cairo’s Adawiya Square in particular to protest the military coup.
Despite all, the West refrained from calling the coup a coup and almost turned a blind eye to the will of the Egyptian people. In the early hours of Saturday, the army opened fire on civilian Morsi supporters in the country. At the time of this post’s writing, the death toll was at least 200 while thousands were injured. Yet the world remained silent. Western media fall short of reflecting an unbiased account of the events in Egypt. The BBC, for example, told its readers on its website early on Saturday that “more than 100 people have been killed at a protest by supporters of ousted Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi in the capital Cairo, doctors say,” without referring to the brutality and the unlawful actions of the military.
I cannot help but think that not much will change and that justice will not be served so long as the world pays more attention to a royal baby than the killing of hundreds of people in the Middle East or in other less developed parts of the world. We live in such a West-centric world that the life of a royal baby is considered more valuable than maybe the total of the peoples of the Middle East.
Fortunately, Turkey will have a proud record at least in terms of defining the events in Egypt as a military coup and unacceptable while the majority of the world remains indifferent, to say the least.
One of the highlights of last week was an ad that appeared in The Times daily against Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. In short, the letter, signed by 30 prominent individuals, including celebrities such as Sean Penn and Susan Sarandon, condemned the police brutality during the recent Gezi Park protests in Turkey. That is fine. Everybody is entitled to their own opinion and leading figures can be concerned about events taking place anywhere around the world.
Although I suspect that they have hardly any idea about what actually happened in Turkey, I can see why they wish to react against police brutality. We all did. However, their letter not only fails to mention the violent nature of the protests in Turkey but also likens the supporters of a democratically elected political party to Nazis.
Every life that was lost during and after the Gezi Park protests is valuable. The pain of the families of the victims will be permanent. But it is at the very least unethical to connect all five lives lost -- some of which were lost after Erdoğan’s rallies -- to people who gathered in those rallies. Excessive use of tear gas and violence by the police should definitely be investigated, but the ad in The Times simply mixed apples and oranges by raising concerns about the Kemalist nature of the state. Indeed, it is only ironic to criticize Erdoğan, who has a highly personal style of governance, as a dictator while making a reference to the most oppressive era in modern Turkish history, namely the 1930s.
Now, given those celebrities’ high sensitivities for human rights and in the face of the massacre in Egypt, I wonder whether they would be willing to place an ad in a leading Western newspaper to condemn the coup in Egypt and ask for the restoration of democracy.
Western double standards become even more painful when the values we aspire to are the Western values and the world has no better option than Western liberal democracies, which only seem to care about the well-being of their own people.
http://todayszaman.com/blog-322041-the-royal-baby-and-the-egyptians.html
Now applaud the coup makers of Egypt!
This call is not to Saudi Arabia or the Gulf states which pay no attention or value to democracy or the dignity, honor and human rights of their peoples or even human life. Allah made them persecutors and tyrants who inflict continuous torture on their people by depriving them of the courtesy of respecting the most fundamental rights and freedoms of the people they govern.
It is not reasonable to expect that those who stay reluctant and disrespectful to the democratic rights and demands of their people would become sensitive to the legitimate demands of other people.
For this reason, this call is to the European Union authorities, the leaders of EU countries and the entire West, including the EU and the US. It is meant for the leaders of the countries who arguably pay the greatest attention and value to democracy, human rights, rule of law, accountability, civilian administration and freedoms. My call is to those who measure the prestige of each country by reference to democratic criteria, universal law and fundamental rights and freedoms.
Please feel free to applaud zealously the Egyptian generals who conducted a coup and massacred people in its aftermath. You should do this because this is what consistency requires. You should applaud these coup makers because you have your fingerprints on the trigger mechanism of every gun pointed at civilians deliberately. You should applaud the generals who conducted a coup and massacres because every bullet taken out of the body of a wounded or murdered civilian protester was purchased by the US dollars and euros you gave the coup makers.
Feel free to applaud them because this is the natural outcome of your affinity with the coup makers and the bandits who coercively ousted a democratically elected leader and arrested him. Even your reluctant responses to the repeated questions by Today's Zaman's representative in Brussels, Selçuk Gültaşlı, “Won't you define what is happening in Egypt as a coup?” alone require that you should applaud the bloodthirsty coup makers. This is the natural outcome of your failure to call a clear military intervention staged against a legitimate and democratically elected government a “coup.” Applauding the foreseeable massacres of the “preferred” coup makers is the natural outcome of this.
Do not contradict yourself; be consistent. Just congratulate your beloved coup-making generals, the painters of this horrific picture drawn by blood, before the blood spilled from the bodies of 200 civilians and 5,000 wounded people fades away. Shake their bloody hands. Hug them tightly and congratulate and honor your heroes for their courage to aim their weapons on the foreheads and chests of the unarmed and harmless protesters.
In a statement Friday, US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said: “The law does not require us to make a formal determination ... as to whether a coup took place, and it is not in our national interest to make such a determination.” I am sure that the same laws do not prevent you from applauding the coup maker generals that you supported by virtue of the sacred American interests which are so important that the lives of millions could be sacrificed. So come on Pentagon, the US State Department and even the White House; get up and zealously applaud what happened in Egypt.
Besides, considering that US State Secretary John Kerry hesitated to make even a miniscule reference to condemnation in his statement where he defined the developments leading up to the horrible massacres as a “pivotal moment,” at least you should feel free to appreciate what these general did. Given that Washington does not want to cut the flow of $1.3 billion to the coup maker generals in Egypt, you should also support this action by applauding these generals.
The European Union's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who failed to call the coup in Egypt a coup in her statement, at least “deeply deplores” the deaths during demonstrations in Egypt and urged all sides to halt violence. Ashton who, in addition to failing to condemn the massacres, equates the coup maker generals with the victims by calling on “all sides to halt violence,” should feel extremely free to applaud the generals who committed massacres if there is still a shred of consistency on the streets of Brussels.
Even though he condemned the massacre and the perpetrators, Britain's Foreign Secretary William Hague, who failed to place an emphasis on democracy during the coup in Egypt, did remain reluctant to distinguish the bandits and coup makers from the innocent civilians whose most basic democratic rights had been violated and taken away. Instead of such a timid approach, he should have applauded the coup maker generals for the sake of some consistency.
Had the clear and consistent attitude of Turkey, which has experienced extreme pains and sufferings in its near past due to the harms by the juntas and the coups, vis-à-vis the coup maker generals since the beginning of the coup in Egypt been pursued by all civilized and allegedly democratic states and institutions, do you think that these massive massacres committed indiscriminately would have taken place anyway? I do not think so. For this reason, those who still fail to openly criticize and condemn the coup makers of Egypt that committed massacres and spoil these generals by encouraging them indirectly and giving a green light to their actions should not be hypocritical; for the sake of avoiding hypocrisy, they should at least strongly applaud these generals.
http://todayszaman.com/columnist-322105-now-applaud-the-coup-makers-of-egypt.html
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