Yunus Emre Institute (YEI) has held the “Resistance Against Non-Democratic Initiatives: The Case of Turkey” panel in Brussels.

Yunus Emre Institute President Prof. Şeref Ateş stated that Turks living abroad should put humility aside and spread the word about their culture of democracy and their resistance to attempted coups.

Prof. Ateş noted that they aim to remind Turkish people living abroad how Turkish culture resists attempts against its own will.

Ateş stated that while the rhetoric of justice inspired by the French Revolution has become widely spread all over the world, the Turkish nation has deliberately stood upright against all kinds of interventions, and expressed that Turks should put humility aside in explaining their just cause abroad.

Ateş emphasized that Turks are much more advanced than other nations in terms of self-governance awareness.
He noted that the resistance shown by all institutions and people, especially President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, against the attempted coup of July 15 should be shared with the whole world.

"A COUP IS A STATE OF ANOMALY"

Assoc. Prof. Mücahit Küçükyılmaz, Chief Advisor to the President, one of the speakers of the panel, stressed that Turkey is a state that has existed for nearly a millennium in a dynamic geography.

Küçükyılmaz stated that the Turkish nation, which has frequently experienced internal strife throughout history, has developed a sort of "immunity" against it and is on high alert against coups.

Stating that he categorizes coups in three as "conventional, interventionist and terrorist attempted coups", Küçükyılmaz added: "Throughout history, struggles for the throne have cost the lives of thousands of people."

Giving examples from the Great Seljuk and Ottoman states, Küçükyılmaz stated: "A coup is a state of anomaly. It is a state of disorder. It has caused traumas."

Stating that the 1960 and 1980 coups were conventional coups, whereas the attempted coup of July 15 was of a "terrorist" nature, Küçükyılmaz noted: "Coups of the past targeted the state, arrested politicians, silenced the media, seized the system and issued memorandums to seize it. On July 15, for the first time, they also turned their fire on the nation."

"AN EXTRAORDINARY EXPERIENCE WITHOUT A PRECEDENT IN HISTORY"

Assoc. Prof. Hüseyin Aydın added that the attempted coup of July 15 was the result of the rapid structuring of FETÖ in the military, judiciary and sensitive institutions of the state after the coup of 1980.

Pointing out that FETÖ completed its organization in the 1990s, Aydın stated; "The attempted coup of July 15 was carried out by soldiers on the surface, but behind the scene, it was an attempt directed and willed by those we call civilian imams."

Aydın described the attempted coup as "an extraordinary experience that has no precedent in history and that all humanity will reflect on and learn lessons from."

Emphasizing that in previous experiences, the state and the nation were not affected because the perpetrators of the coup achieved their goals and operated the system, Aydın pointed out that on July 15, unlike in previous cases, the nation was also targeted, noting that the course of events was changed by the pro-democracy stance of President Erdoğan and Hulusi Akar, the then Chief of General Staff.

In response to a question, Aydın stated that the facts of July 15 should be told tirelessly against the propaganda made abroad to the contrary, and noted that the process regarding the trials continues successfully.

"THE MATURITY OF DEMOCRACY IS EMBEDDED IN OUR DNA"

Mehmet Kemal Bozay, Turkey's Permanent Representative to the European Union (EU), stated that he was on duty in Serbia on July 15, 2016 and shared his own experience.

He reported that the then Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic called him and asked, "Do you trust your security staff?" and stated that it was a painful experience.

Bozay stated that the show of support by the crowd gathered in the Sancak region was inspiring and showed "the greatness of the state and the nation". He added: "We responded (to the attempted coup) with the maturity of democracy that is embedded in our DNA."