Deputy of the “Armenia” bloc, member of the General Assembly of the Armenian Democratic Party, Turkologist Gegham Manukyan with 168.amThis time discussed Turkic issues.

According to the federalist’s observation, four coups have taken place during the one-century history of the Republic of Turkey, three of which were directly military intervention, the last one in 1997, is called post-modern, because the change of power was carried out by the army in a bloodless, palace way.

And, unlike the experience of 2016, according to Gegham Manukyan, all previous military coups were successful, because “the military had the support of powerful foreign forces, and in 2016, the Turkish military was deprived of it and was defeated, because Turkish President Erdogan also received direct support from these forces.” Naturally, Turkish President Erdogan will not admit that he had any form of support from foreign forces in 2016, he attributes the failure of the military coup attempt to the unity and sanity of his people.

And Gegham Manukyan is of the opinion that all this is very instructive for all military coup attempts.

Has there ever been a military coup attempt in the Republic of Armenia, successful or not, can we project the above on Armenia?

For example, the departure of Levon Ter-Petrosyan in 1998. What was it in February, a bloodless “military coup”?… Nikol Pashinyan also called the statement of the General Staff of the RA Armed Forces of February 25, 2021 an attempted military coup, moreover, with outside intervention, from the former to outside forces, although the former Head of the General Staff Onik Gasparyan ruled it out.

– The armed coups in Turkey were only the result of external influence. In other words, the internal political situation of some external forces, especially the Western ones, gave the United States the opportunity to say “yes” or silently support the illegal unconstitutional actions carried out by the armed forces in 1960, 1971, 1980, 1997.

As for the armed coup of 2016, the political situation was such that Erdogan, with the tacit support of both the West and Russia, was more in control of the situation. We should also not forget the case during the attempted military coup, when it was based on direct Russian information that Erdogan escaped death in connection with the plane. Of course, in 2016, the role of the society and the people was also great, which directly expressed the high rating of Erdogan, as a result of which it was also possible to resist the military, including popular resistance or resistance.

And in the case of Armenia, talking about a military coup or its attempt, including the famous resignation of Levon Ter-Petrosyan in February 1998, this has nothing to do with reality, because Ter-Petrosyan’s resignation was the result of a sharp difference in the positions of the government and the opposition on the internal political and political line of Armenia, and not the army had any role in it.

Moreover, the sharp difference in views between the government and the opposition was also expressed in society. We are talking about the future of Artsakh and two different ideas of negotiation on the Artsakh issue, which, I repeat, was expressed in February 1998 with the resignation of Levon Ter-Petrosyan. And the RA foreign policy of the following 20 years also testified that the reason for the resignation was the difference in visions regarding the future of Artsakh.

As for the statement of the General Staff of the RA Armed Forces of February 25, 2021, it is also impossible to call this a military coup attempt, because in the classical sense, during military coup attempts or changes of power, all the tools available to the armed forces are used. Meanwhile, the General Staff simply made a statement, and it was about the attitude of the political power towards the armed forces in general.

And it is no coincidence that the statement of the General Staff was not accepted by the international community with bayonets, except for Turkey and Azerbaijan. And Nikol Pashinyan’s wording, “attempted military coup”, was repeated verbatim only by Turkey, and no other international organization or any other country said a word about it at all.

– Let’s return to Turkey and Erdogan’s policy towards the country’s army and military. Can we say that Erdogan, on the one hand, has created a powerful army, and in recent years, also a military industry, on the other hand, he has reduced the influence of the military in the country’s internal political life and the country’s governance system, moreover, he did it in the name of reforms necessary for EU membership. And now he is trying to change the constitution of Turkey so that the country has a “civil” mother law that will not be dictated by foreign forces and “rioters”. What is Erdogan trying to prevent with this?

– The transformation of the armed forces in Turkey is a rather extensive topic. Because in terms of its role in the domestic political life of Turkey, the country’s armed forces underwent quite a transformation for decades, after Erdogan came to power and even before that, as well as with the strengthening of the Gulen movement in the country, along with the widespread appearance of Gulenists in various security structures. And the strong presence of Gülenists, officers with Islamic tendencies in the Turkish army predetermined all the changes, dismissals, arrests, arrests, beheadings of the armed forces that took place. During Erdogan’s rule. And in this logic are also all the papers and proceedings related to “Ergenicon”.

Let’s add that at the event dedicated to the memory of the victims of the failed military coup attempt in Turkey in July 2016, which was also a reminder of how 10 years ago the Turkish authorities and the people managed to jointly prevent it, Erdogan stated:

“Our state has more than enough power to neutralize any threat against it and defeat those traitors who dare to raise their heads. Although FETÖ has essentially lost fighting spirit and lost hope after the death of its leader, Turkey cannot afford to weaken in the fight against this insidious network.”

On the one hand, this means that Turkey has not completely neutralized the threats from the Gulen movement, has not cleaned the security and power structures of “traitors”, on the other hand, this suggests Erdogan’s fears, such as any dictator may have, even if the country has become a serious factor in the outside world.

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