Post Turkey coup attempt article by US writer draws ire

ANKARA

Turkey's bloody coup attempt plotted by the Fetullah Terrorist Organization is not seen as a threat to democracy, according to an article written by American writer Steven Cook.

The article published on Thursday in U.S.-based magazine The Atlantic, which is headlined "How Erdogan Made Turkey Authoritarian Again", overlooks the people's struggle to protect the country's democracy, rushing to the streets to stop the illegal coup attempt, but rather says it "would not have brought an end to Turkey’s democracy".

The article claimed that only Turkey's ruling party's progress would have been lost, ignoring the fact that coup plotters bombed the Turkish parliament, a clear intention to harm the democratic functioning of the country.

Instead Steven Cook wrote: "Turkey’s democracy has not been lost – there was no democracy for it to lose."

The Fetullah Gulen movement, which orchestrated a 40-year infiltration of critical state institutions like the army, judiciary, security and intelligence units and various bureaucratic institutions with a variety of identities, aiming to seize control of the state, was not mentioned as a threat to democracy, or as an illegal organization.

The article also described Turkey’s national public broadcaster TRT – which was raided by pro-coup soldiers – and its official news agency Anadolu Agency – whose motto is 'reliable, impartial, ethical and fast news' – as a "part of the AKP’s [Justice and Development Party] political operation", without any facts to support its arguments.

The deadly coup attempt began late on July 15 when rogue elements of the Turkish military tried to overthrow the country's democratically elected government, killing 246 people and injuring more than 2,100 others.

Turkey's government said last Friday’s attempted coup was organized by followers of U.S.-based preacher Fetullah Gulen, who is accused of a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through infiltrating Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police and judiciary, forming what is commonly known as a ‘parallel state’.