Faisal Alshammeri

The recently failed coup in Turkey was, and will certainly prove to be, a defining moment of the history of the region and beyond. It is important to remember to be careful when comparing historical events or parallels between them for the critical factor of context can, and often does, get overlooked. Although history does repeat itself, and doesn’t always do so in an exact same replicative manner. Many people have an instinctively negative reaction to military coups, or for that matter civilian uprisings to overthrow standing governments. At best they are very difficult to undertake, unpredictable in execution, and in general, uprisings overthrowing governments are rare in occurrence. However not all military coups or uprisings against governments are bad. There can be good military coups and peaceful uprisings against governments that are able to, and should, get the broad support of people. Let us take one example from history in an attempt to bring an element of clarity to the failed coup in Turkey.

On 22 June 1941, the second year of World War II, Germany invaded Russia. From day one, both sides committed atrocities against each other, but the descent into barbarism, mass murder, and wholesale slaughter that would define The Eastern Front was primarily orchestrated by Hitler, National Socialist ideology, the SS, SD, and the “Special Task Forces” who were simply death squads. These were the instruments of achieving the brutal aims of the campaign in The East. One German General on just the third day of the campaign in The East reprimanded his soldiers for executing Russian prisoners:

“Senseless shootings of both prisoners and civilians have taken place. A Russian

  soldier who has been taken prisoner while wearing a uniform, and after he put up a  

  brave fight, has the right to decent treatment”

Five days later the same German General severely commented:

          “Still more shootings or prisoners and deserters have been personally observed,

           conducted in an irresponsible, senseless and criminal manner. This is murder.”

Where this German General was posted was with Army Group Centre, with some 1.6 million men in all, over 1,600 tanks and roughly 1,000 frontline aircraft whose advance route would be from Eastern Poland, through today’s Belarus via Minsk, onwards to Smolensk in Western Russia, with the operational goal of  Moscow itself. The Chief of Staff for Army Group Centre was one Henning von Tresckow. In July, just a soccer field or so from his headquarters, at Borisov in Belarus some 8,000 people were shot. Civilians, 8,000, shot along the side of a road, and buried in shallow graves. Upon witnessing this he immediately began to plot actively against Hitler and The National Socialist government, using as his means either a military coup or assassination. Eventually he would chose to use both. From the moment immediately following the slaughter he witnessed at Borisov, he devoted whenever possible, time and considerable effort to assassinating Hitler and overthrowing The National Socialist regime. As Chief of Staff for Army Group Centre, the strongest of the armed forces deployed against Russia, he was in a unique position to assassinate Hitler. Hitler would visit Army Group Centre many times, and upon which time he was immediately in the security network of the Army Group, giving von Tresckow direct access to Hitler. He nearly killed Hitler in March 1943 by placing a bomb on his plane when Hitler came to visit his headquarters. The bomb was supposed to detonate mid-flight on Hitler’s return journey to his headquarters in East Prussia. It didn’t go off. The devil’s hand had protected Hitler. Tresckow would become one of the chief architects in the most famous of attempts on Hitler’s life, and nearly successful, which took place on 20 July 1944. Hitler survived and with it any chance of an end to the war was gone forever. Germany would lose 5,000 people a day during a 150 day stretch during the summer of 1944 in the fight against Russia on The Eastern Front, or over a million men in all. During 1944 hundreds of thousands of German civilians would die or be left homeless by The Anglo-American bombing campaign. From January-May 1945 some 350,000 Germans would die each month, while some 20,000,000 would leave ancient homelands in the midst of a brutal winter with whatever belongings they could bring with them to flee the murderous and raping Russian Armies invading the Eastern Provinces of Germany. Would it not have been good to avoid this? More soldiers and civilians died in the last 6 months of the war than the previous 6 years combined. A military coup against this regime, had it been successful, potentially could’ve potentially avoided this.

Would not this be an instance where a military coup was not only advisable, but honorable as well? General Henning von Tresckow would commit suicide rather than be arrested and tortured by The Gestapo. His final words were::

“Now they will fall upon us and cover us with abuse. But I am convinced, now as much as ever, that we have done the right thing. I believe Hitler to be the arch-enemy, not only of   

     Germany, but of the entire world. . . Just as God once promised Abraham that He would    

     spare Sodom if only ten just men could be found in the city, I have reason to hope that, for  

     our sake, He will not destroy Germany. No one among us can complain about his death,

     for whoever joined our ranks put on the poisoned shirt of Nessus. A man’s moral worth is

    established only at the point where he is prepared to give his life for his convictions.”

            In the end some 5,000 people would be arrested for the attempt on Hitler’s life, and some 200 would be executed for their primary roles in the plot. Following the coup in Turkey, Erdogan has arrested some 60,000 for their “involvement” in the attempt to overthrow the AKP regime, or twelve times as many arrested as the attempt on Hitler’s life. Stories are emerging of torture, sexual assault, summary execution, and even the arrest of even children. Like Hitler, Erdogan was democratically elected. Like Hitler, Erdogan looked at his survival of the attempt on his regime as a sign from above for him to carry out his perceived mandate. We do not know what the aims of the Turkish Military were, but if one had to speculate they would probably strongly agree with the final words General Henning von Tresckow shared with us for history’s sake. That in the face of being indifferent to Erdogan, his regime, the growing presence of radicalism in government, the brotherhood, and the AKP government willingly moving Westerners through Turkey knowing that they would work for the barbarous daesh, indifference to a sizable daesh presence inside Turkey itself, purchasing of oil from daesh, and the overall lack of moral clarity in the face of the most sadistic organization the world has known since Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge, that these individuals chose to make a stand. To let the world know that they did not support the emerging tyrant in Ankara, and that they would rather stand for something than be indifferent to aiding and abetting evil inside Syria. That democracy is not compatible with the impulses of a power hungry individual who aspires to absolute power.  If we are correct in this assumption, then we can say that this was one of those instances where a military coup was advisable, desirable, and a necessary last resort option. What we do know is what has happened since the coup and the actions of Erdogan. In all but name only he has acted as a dictator, moving rapidly in the direction of tyrant. In time we will know the true aims of the coup plotters. In time too we will know what Erdogan becomes as well. For him, democracy is only legitimate to use as a platform to serve his aims. Democracy in Ankara is now compatible with an emerging tyranny.

  Writer and Political analyst *

@Mr_Alshammeri