‘Loyalty’ to state key to defeat July 15 coup attempt

By Kadir Yildiz

KOCAELI, Turkey

Last July's defeated coup was defeated by “loyalty” of Turkish people to its state, chairman of Bosnia's House of Representatives said on Thursday.

Turkey's northwestern Kocaeli province brought together politicians, academics and media representatives from over 30 countries in a three-day international Kartepe Summit titled 'International Symposium on July 15 and Coups D'etat - Global Impacts, Media and Democracy'.

Bosnia's Edin Music was among the participants on the first day of the summit.

“Bosnia and Herzegovina, as a friend country, followed [the coup attempt] with worry, but we thought the power of Turkish people would defeat this misdeed,” Music said, adding, “The loyalty of people to the state averted the coup attempt.”

Moderated by former Turkish Parliament speaker Mehmet Ali Sahin, the session was attended by Veyis Gungor, Holland Turkish House Research Center’s chairman, Ata Atun, political advisor to the third president of Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, and Beril Dedeoglu, a professor at Galatasaray University in Istanbul.

Addressing the session, Sahin said there was no parallelism between developments in science and technology and democracy in the world.

He also noted that Turkey has experienced eight coup d’etat or such attempts since the World War II.

'Missed oppotunity'

Entitling last year’s defeated putsch as a “milestone” in Turkey’s history of coups, Dedeoglu said coup plotters tried to convince people that overthrowing the government by military is a reasonable act.

However, she emphasized: “The scenario didn’t apply to Turkey”.

Shedding light on the international repercussions of the defeated coup, Ata Atun said the Greek Cypriot administration saw it as a “missed opportunity” to attack the northern side of the island.

Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) and its U.S.-based leader Fetullah Gulen orchestrated the defeated coup of July 15, which left 250 people martyred and nearly 2,200 injured.

Ankara accuses FETO of being behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police, and judiciary.

The Kartepe Summit is hosted by Kocaeli Metropolitan Municipality, while Anadolu Agency is the Global Communication partner of the summit.

The symposium is organized in partnership with Turkey's state broadcaster TRT, Kocaeli University, Istanbul University, Sakarya University, Yildirim Beyazit University, International Sarajevo University, as well as Turkish Prime Ministry Coordinating Office of Public Diplomacy and Turkish-Arab Institute for Strategic Studies.

The international summit takes place in Kocaeli's Kartepe district every September or October to discuss the social and political issues concerning Turkey and the world.