Even through all his bluster, Erdogan's fear is obvious
Despite massive purges since the attempted coup a year ago, Turkey's president and those around him are still afraid of their own military.
Turkey is commemorating the first anniversary of the July 15 failed coup — the official Martyrs and Democracy Day. The list of state-sponsored celebrations is quite impressive, with nonstop TV shows rewriting that night. A webpage titled “July 15 activities” presents a documentary, songs about the attempt, the names of those killed, and the images of monuments built in Ankara and Istanbul for the victims. It also displays posters designed to capture the key moments of the coup attempt. Since July 11, these images have decorated cities throughout Turkey. Most of them are quite problematic, however.
There is an uproar on social media under the hashtag #IndirinOAfisleri (Take down those posters), which quickly became a trending topic. Social media commentators and columnists were disappointed, furious and perplexed; the most prevalent complaint was the display of Turkish soldiers as traitors and losers positioned against civilians and the Turkish flag. Those who object see the campaign as the government's psychological attack on the military and believe it benefits the country's enemies. Many commentators expressed surprise that there was not an image of exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen, who is said to have orchestrated the coup attempt.
Ultranationalist politicians Umit Ozdag and Meral Aksener expressed their disapproval of the posters and asked for them to be corrected promptly.
Within a few hours, it became clear that these images were not only offensive to the Turkish Armed Forces, but they were also plagiarized — in particular, one image caused commotion because it was plagiarized from an award-winning image by American photographer David Turnley taken during the 1991 Gulf War.
