Four years on, former AKP insiders reflect on Turkey's failed coup
Former members and supporters of Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party discuss the four-year anniversary of the 2016 failed coup and say that the rule of law and democratic principles have been weakened in the country.
ISTANBUL — Nihal Olcok’s husband and 16-year-old son were among the 251 people who lost their lives during a violent coup attempt the night of July 15, 2016. They had joined countless citizens in the streets to defend Turkish democracy against a military takeover in an event that continues to shape the country to this day.
Her husband, Erol, worked closely with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Olcok, however, reflecting on the fourth anniversary of the failed putsch, said she believes the government has misrepresented the legacy of those who died that night, using the event to limit the democratic rights they fought for while infringing on rule-of-law principles in the post-coup purges that followed.
“I did not just lose my husband and son that night,” Olcok told Al-Monitor. “Turkey, as a nation, lost its sense of hope and trust on July 15.”
The government accuses supporters of Fethullah Gulen, an Islamic cleric living in self-imposed exile in the United States, of organizing the failed coup. Since then, 282,790 people have been detained and 94,975 arrested on coup-linked charges, according to a statement issued this week by Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu. During the same period, about 150,000 people were dismissed or suspended from their positions as academics, judges, prosecutors, police officers and public servants. Detentions of suspected coup-plotters are still taking place.
