The 1997 coup: Why do Islamists remember it and secularists ignore it?

Necmettin Erbakan.. the father of political Islam and the fierce fighter of secularism (Anatolia)

Despite the numerous military coups that Turkey has witnessed during the last hundred years, the 1997 coup in particular will remain a milestone in the modern history of the Turkish nation.

Due to the events that accompanied it, its subsequent developments, and the results that resulted from it, it changed much of Turkey’s political and social appearance.

The military coup took place on February 28, in collusion with the Republican Palace against the coalition government formed by the Islamic Welfare Party, led by Necmettin Erbakan, and the True Path Party, headed by Tansu Ciller.

It is a coup that increased the gap between secularists and Islamists, fueled the fire of conflict between them, and almost led to confrontations that threatened the social peace of the state, as it made it clear in an unambiguous manner that everything directly related to Islam or derived from it represents a direct threat to the foundations of modern Turkey. Which is based on the principles of secularism and separation of religion from the state.

Black February and its effects

It is a memory that the Islamic and conservative movement is keen to revive every year, as it is the most influential military coup on political and social life within Turkish society, and whose events are still fresh in the collective memory of the people who insist on preserving all its details, and extracting lessons from it, so that they can continue the march and preserve On the gains achieved under the civil authority, which is now leading the country’s march towards progress and prosperity.

While secularists and leftists deliberately ignore it;

Due to the suspicious role played by their parties and media institutions at the time, they were all the tools used by the military establishment to undermine Erbakan’s elected government, incite the street against his decisions, and bring him down.

Erbakan as Prime Minister

As a witness to the events and warning signs that preceded the coup against the legitimate, elected authority in the country, I see that there are some things that are overlooked by those who take part in this event, including, but not limited to, the failure to highlight the extent of the suffering he faced. The late Necmettin Erbakan was trying to form his government and assume the position of Prime Minister, despite his Welfare Party winning first place in the elections held in 1996, since the overthrow of the Ottoman Empire, but it was a majority that did not enable him to form the government alone, so he began an impossible task to convince other parties to form a coalition with his party. .

Let the military establishment’s instructions to the heads of these parties to refuse to ally with him stand as a stumbling block in front of him, to force him to apologize for not forming them, which is what the military establishment was waiting for, so that the man and his party could be quickly eliminated quietly and without its actual intervention, which might affect the state of stability in the country.

However, Erbakan's skill and perseverance achieved for him what seemed impossible in the eyes of everyone, as he succeeded in convincing Tansu Ciller of her True Path Party's alliance with him, and they agreed that Erbakan would assume the position of Prime Minister for a period of two years, during which Ciller would assume the positions of Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, and succeed him. He then served as prime minister for the next two years.

This agreement represented a real shock at the time for both the Presidency of the Republic and the military establishment, which agreed to work together to bring down Erbakan and punish his partner Ciller, the spoiled daughter of President Suleyman Demirel, who helped her with all his might to succeed him as head of his True Path Party.

After the formation of the government and Erbakan assuming the position of prime minister, the man began to carry out his duties without hiding his Islamic orientation, and the military establishment began to place him under strict surveillance, to monitor his movements and eavesdrop on his communications.

Waiting for a suitable opportunity to overthrow him.

Tarnishing Erbakan's image

Rather, it sought to distort his image in front of his supporters and supporters from the Islamic movement, and to show him as subservient to it and carrying out its instructions, as he was forced to sign dozens of successive military and security agreements with Israel, in a precedent that had never happened in the history of Turkey, and he was also forced to allow the United States to use Incirlik base to strike Iraq, and declare its support for the establishment of a Kurdish federalism in northern Iraq.

Despite all these pressures, Erbakan believed that this stage required dealing with matters carefully and wisely, and he did not lose sight of realizing his dream of linking his country’s future to its Arab and Islamic expansion, and getting rid of its humiliating rapprochement with the West and the European Union.

Therefore, he sought to establish the Economic Group of Eight, which includes, in addition to Turkey, Egypt, Iran, Pakistan, Indonesia, Nigeria, Malaysia, and Bangladesh.

In preparation for the establishment of a common Islamic market, in an attempt on his part to extract the Islamic world from the clutches of Western and American hegemony.

He also worked to increase the number of schools for imams and preachers to spread throughout Turkey, covering the various stages of education. He also called on citizens to open Quran memorization schools for all ages.

To create a generation more aware of its Islamic identity, and more deeply aware of the responsibilities it bears towards its nation. He promised in one of his sermons to establish a mosque in Taksim Square, a symbol of Turkish secularism and its historical stronghold, and to reopen the Hagia Sophia Mosque to worshipers.

Before the month of Ramadan, Erbakan suggested that the government issue a decision to allow fasting employees to work during the usual lunch break, provided that they leave early to join their families at breakfast tables. However, he invited a number of sheikhs and heads of some Turkish religious and Sufi groups to breakfast at the Prime Minister’s Office. It was the beginning of his targeting by those lurking behind him and his rule, as they were photographed as they entered wearing turbans, abayas, and galabiyas in an appearance that angered Kemalists, secularists, and leftists, who considered it an appearance unbecoming of the Turkish Republic, so the secular media and satellite channels took over the task of opening an expanded discussion about secularism and the influence of Sharia law. On the future of the republic.

Then came his visit to Tripoli, a visit in which Colonel Muammar Gaddafi received him in one of his tents, and publicly blamed him for accepting the dictates of the military in his country and yielding to their demands, which sparked a wave of popular anger against him.

Precursors of a coup

These two incidents were followed by two incidents that were like the straw that broke the camel’s back and hastened the overthrow of Erbakan. The first of them occurred on October 6, 1996, when one of the extremist Sufi orders staged a demonstration at the Kocatepe Mosque in the capital, Ankara, to demand that the government implement Islamic law and return from the principle of Secularism, showing its hostility to Ataturk.

The second was on January 30, 1997, when the municipality of Xinjiang, affiliated with the Welfare Party headed by Bekir Yildiz, in the capital, Ankara, organized a popular march to celebrate Jerusalem Day and declare solidarity with the Palestinian people under the name “Jerusalem Night,” a march in which the Iranian ambassador at the time participated. Ali Reda Behairy, in which slogans were raised denouncing the occupying state and demanding death to Israel.

Enough is enough and the military establishment loses its patience, and finds in the previous developments its golden opportunity to overthrow the man and force him to resign, so tanks and military armored vehicles take to the streets of Xinjiang, closing its roads and squares, and the people wake up on the morning of February 4, 1997 to the roar of tanks, which numbered fifteen tanks. Twenty military armored vehicles penetrated the streets and blocked the roads, in what appeared to be a prelude to a coup against the elected government.

The military begins to make statements that “reactionary movements pose a greater threat to the Turkish state than the terrorist organization of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party,” and that Erbakan’s government supports reactionism.

Steps to overthrow the government

On January 22, 1997, the army leadership held a meeting devoted to discussing the fate of Erbakan’s government and the threat it represented to the future of the secular system of the Republic. An action plan was drawn up that aimed to create a tense climate leading to his overthrow, and a number of chiefs were summoned. Universities, judges, and officials of labor unions and chambers of commerce went to the headquarters of the Chief of Staff, inciting them against the government, and demanding that they launch popular campaigns against its policy, so that demonstrations could be launched denouncing Erbakan and his government, and demanding his resignation.

On February 28, the National Security Council will meet, with the majority of its members being military personnel, headed by Suleiman Demirel, President of the Republic, and in the presence of all commanders of the armed forces, general and military intelligence, the most important of whom are Chief of Staff Ismail Hakki Karadey, Defense Minister Turhan Tayan, and Interior Minister Meral Aksener. And the commanders of the land, naval, air and gendarmerie forces, and the Secretary-General of the National Security Council, along with both Erbakan and Ciller.

The meeting lasted eight hours and forty-five minutes, and is considered the longest meeting in the history of the Council, where a list of demands was drawn up that targeted the Islamists in their entirety, but Erbakan did not implement any of them, after which he submitted his resignation from the position of Prime Minister, and Tansu Ciller was punished by depriving her of the post. Prime Minister, where Mesut Yilmaz, head of the Motherland Party, was assigned to form the government, so that the military would achieve their goal without having to take more of their tanks and armored vehicles into the streets, and without firing a shot, or even broadcasting a single statement to the nation.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Al Jazeera.