By: Islam Al-Ghamry

Pace of confrontation between Turkey's Islamic oriented government and the secular army has escalated recently.

This was a result of arresting former senior officers over preparing for coup.

Turkish-Israeli relations have worsened lately because of some daring stances of PM Erdogan.

He took honorable stances to support the Palestinian problem especially during the last war on Gaza.

The government gave implied permission for protests against the Israeli occupation, which overwhelmed big cities of the Turkish capital.

In Erdogan's statement in Davos Annual Meeting, he refuted Peres' lies to justify the Israeli massacres against innocents in Gaza.

Add to this the situation of Turkish president, Abdullah Gul, toward the visit of Ehud Barak. Fifty MPs participated in the Lifeline Convoy to break Gaza siege.

 The last action from the Turkish side was canceling maneuvers with Israel.

On the other side, we see Turkey's relations with Arab and Muslim countries, especially Syria, are getting better. This is a milestone for the Justice and Development Party.

For all the above reasons, fir started to appear from beneath the ashes. Israel launched slamming statement against the government of Turkey and its policies. The Israeli lobby in the US pressured to take decisions and stances against Turkey like describing what happened in World War 1 as "genocide" against Armenians.

Parallel with that, tense relations between the army and the government began.

Turkish army and coups:

The armed forces have 1.054.750 soldiers i.e. the largest number after the USA among the NATO countries.

After joining the NATO in February 1952, Turkey adopted a program for developing the army. In the late 80s, it started a second phase to modernize the armed forces.

Since it was formed by Kemal Atatürk, father of the Turkish Republic, the army controlled the political, cultural and ideological aspects of life.

It managed to impose secularism on the Turkish Muslim people for very long time.

The common motive throughout the previous coups was to defend secularist principles.

We quote Hosni Mahalli as saying:

"The first and bloodiest coup occurred on 27 May 1960. The army overthrew Adnan Mandaris government after charges of letting religious powers, banned before, work freely."

Despite the fact that Mandaris was not an Islamist, attempting to preach secular standards was enough to get him executed along with three of his ministers over "non-serious" allegations.

We notice that the US never intervened to rescue its close friend and servant. At his time, Turkey turned to a strategic station for the NATO forces to face the USSR and Arab Nationalism led by Nasser.

The second coup was in March 1971. This time it was incited by the US. The country witnessed bloody conflicts between leftists on one side and Islamists and Nationalists on the other side. Washington was afraid that the left wing might become of weight among Turkish people, especially after carrying out armed operations against US bases and killing the Israeli ambassador to Turkey.

The third was in September 1980. There was Kurdish rebellion in the south. The left wing was gaining power, in addition to the ramifications of the Iranian revolution, the Iraqi-Iranian war and the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.

This coincided with The Islamic Green Belt theory of Brzezinski. Turkey was one of the major components of this project which aimed to surround the USSR by a belt of Muslim countries.

This coup had great impact on the political status of the country. Kenan Evren, the coup leader, stayed as a president for seven years after issuing a weird constitution, that Turks still suffer till now, gives coup leasers everlasting constitutional immunity.

All following prime ministers, including Demirel, Ajawid and Arbakan, failed to change anti-democratic constitution acts. This highlighted the state of "fear" politicians were living.

The last coup was in February 1997. The army took tanks to streets to force the Prime Minister to resign.

Is the ground still prepared for more coups?

Jihad Fadel says:

"There is no doubt that the army finds the ground no more prepared like before."

This was proved lately by introducing army generals to justice over coup planning without finding supporters whether among colleagues or among people.

Only non-effective secularist small parties back them.

Finally, we say:

This cannot change the fact that:

The time that passed will not come again.

Translated by: R. El Saieed

Revised by: Fatima Suleiman

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