Events and processes that are taking place in Turkey, immediately after the failed attempt of a military coup, have a rather mixed reception both in the world and in Turkey itself. With a request to comment on these processes, we turned to the orientalist-turkologist, expert of Caucasian Geopolitical Club Yuriy Mavashev.

In your opinion, what is currently happening in Turkey?

What is happening can be described with a very pithy term – “Anti-Kemalist revolution”. We are witnessing the dismantling of not only security but also socio-political institutions of the secular republic. Not to mention the undermining of the humanitarian sphere. Suffice it to say that already more than 2 thousand schools, universities, public organizations and health facilities in Turkey have been closed. The authorities strongly convince the international community of the legitimacy and proportionality of their actions. In Russia, on the part of the Turkish research community, close to the government – there is an injection of propaganda information containing the “right” evaluations and interpretations. The search for enemies or “witch hunting” drives Ankara so far over the line that international humanitarian law starts to undergo revision, with a view to discussing the early introduction of the death penalty. All this is happening against the background of the ban on dissidents to express their views on all public platforms that can be reached by Turkish security forces and the prosecutor’s office. The authorities announced their intention to shut down 131 media outlets that are merely suspected of collaboration with the renowned Islamic scholar and public figure Fethullah Gülen, whom the authorities suspect of treason. Thus, Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said that prosecutors launched an investigation against those citizens who express any point of view alternative to the government in social networks regarding the coup in the country.

Thus, the government’s rhetoric regarding the failed coup is not a topic for discussion. In their opinion, there are enough evidence and details, and new details are not required. It is important to emphasize that these processes are combined with mythologization of public consciousness, if you will. “Jinn affecting Turkish politicians”, one-dollar bills as “symbols of affiliation” of detainee with a figure of Fethullah Gülen are floating to the surface.  And the crowning touch to this “construction” is so-called “superior mind” (Turkish: üst akıl), which, in the opinion of the Turkish authorities, is the concentration of the world’s evil…

There is no doubt that it is the right of each state and the people living in it to believe and share the views that they consider closest to themselves in a given historical time. At the same time, it is important not to forget the bitter experience of the XX century: the hoax is always the shortest road to totalitarianism.