Opposition warns that September 12 coup d'état is continuing in Turkey with the AKP government

On the 40th anniversary of the September 12 coup d'état, Turkey’s opposition warns that September 12 is continuing in the country with the AKP government.

EMEP, CHP and HDP each made statements on the 40th anniversary of the September 12 military coup. The parties stated that the coup is continuing in Turkey with the AKP government, and attention was drawn to the pressures on the social and political segments.

EMEP (Labour Party), CHP (Republican People's Party) Mersin MP Alpay Antmen and HDP (Peoples' Democratic Party) spokesperson Ebru Günay made statements regarding the September 12 coup. 40 years on from the coup, the parties warned that September 12 “is continuing with the AKP government”.

EMEP: TODAY’S ONE-MAN REGIME IS AN INDICATION THAT THE SEPTEMBER 12 LEGACY IS IN SAFE HANDS

In the statement made by EMEP, it was reminded that during the coup period, 230 thousand people were interrogated with torture, 571 people were sentenced to death, 50 people were executed, and many people were forced to take refuge.

“Those who were caught in the pursuit of the security state were banned from their public rights”, it said. “Major unions were shut, the doors of the parties in parliament were locked, their leaders were put under surveillance. Many publications were banned; journalists were sentenced with demands for them to face hundreds of years of punishment. And heavy censorship and prohibition was imposed during the junta's rule”.

The party added that September 12 did not only consist of torture, executions and unlawfulness, but that “in order to silence the opposition and put an end to the workers and peoples struggle so that it could implement the neoliberal policies of the January 24 economic package, the junta leaders took control of the governance of the country, and in this way, it attempted to remove all obstacles for it to seize the capital’s production and circulation.”

(...) “The soldiers, who claimed to retreat back to their barracks after setting up a new Constitution and re-establishing the parliamentary system, never really did return to those forts. They guided the decision-making processes in the National Security Council (MGK) as a legal but improper party”.

The party emphasized that the September 12 system played a role in redetermining the state and social relations currently in Turkey and the developments which followed the coup.

It added: “(...) The political system we live in today is one that was paved by September 12 and the path that was laid out by the junta. Even when the military coup plotters left the arena to civilians, their ideas remained in power.

“Today’s one-man regime is an indication that the September 12 legacy is in safe hands. With the same adherence, the rights of the working people continue to be slaughtered, opposition groups are silenced, censorship is operating at the same intensity and the same unlawfulness remains. The AKP makes every social and political segment that criticises and refutes the policies of the government, and those that are determined to fight against these policies and demand rights and freedoms, a target of its attacks.”

“THE UNITED STRUGGLE WILL BREAK UP THE REACTIONARY SIEGE”

EMEP called for a united struggle as it is the only thing that can guarantee winning a real democracy and added: “The struggle that fought against the crimes committed by the September 12 regime on the people, the working class, the masses and the oppressed will continue today against the one-man regime’s attempt to create a reactionary, fascist system. It is the unity and common struggle of the forces of labour and democracy that will break up the reactionary siege.”

CHP’S ANTMEN: SEPTEMBER 12 HAS BECAME PERMANENT WITH THE AKP

CHP’s Mersin MP Antmen said: “The AKP government is the continuation of [coup leader] Kenan Evren. But the student has even surpassed the master, and with the AKP, the days of September 12 have become sought after. Even during the days of Kenan Evren, there was not so much dismissal, detention, arrest pressure or tyranny. Even during the days of Kenan Evren, this many rights and laws were not trampled on. AKP is not [former prime ministers] Adnan Menderes or Turgut Özal, as they claim; it is the continuation of Kenan Evren. September 12 has become permanent with the AKP’s efforts.”

HDP: THE AKP-MHP GOVERNMENT CONTINUES THE SPIRIT OF SEPTEMBER 12

Günay, on behalf of the HDP Central Executive Board (MYK), said that the effects of the coup was felt in Turkey even after 40 years. “This coup, in which the will of the people was usurped, the norms of democracy and human rights were shelved, the country's administration was seized by force, has created a great destruction that is still felt today, even after 40 years,” she said.

The party warned that the September 12 coup is continuing in a more expansive way today in terms of the seizure of fundamental rights and freedoms, the domination of an authoritarian and unlawful administration and the concentration of all powers in “one-man”.

Günay continued: “This coup does not only consist of hundreds of thousands of detentions, torture, arrests, exiles, executions and unsolved and extrajudicial enforcements. It is also the injustices and illegal practices against the Kurdish people, Alevi, women and labourers. The current AKP-MHP administration is a reflection of September 12 in terms of showing the damage caused by the usurpation of workers’ rights, de-unionisation, exploitation, the violation of freedom of thought, expression, information and communication.”

“It is important to examine the September 12 mentality, in which junta laws prevailed by disregarding the Constitution, in its 40th year, to understand both the mechanics of the coup that repeats itself since the foundation of the Republic of Turkey and how the AKP-MHP government is the perpetrator, practitioner and remainder of the same mindset.

“All the illegal and non-democratic practices that the junta leaders dreamed of but could not implement are being carried out more exponentially by the AKP-MHP today. The new presidential system of government imposes the military coup’s fascism and dictatorial enthusiasm onto Turkey’s society, with the Kurdish people bearing the brunt, along with the Alevi, women and labourers. In this respect, the AKP-MHP government continues the spirit and mind of September 12.”

The statement added that the way to stand against the mechanisms of the coups in the country is to ensure the existence of different languages, cultures, identities and beliefs under constitutional guarantee, and to create a democratic, libertarian, ecological and social Constitution.