As far as it is understood from the diaries attributed to him, Örnek saw that it was impossible to overthrow the government without a go-ahead from the US. For him, even if a coup could be conducted without consent from the US, it would be impossible to manage the country without external support, particularly given the economic condition at the time. The following sentences sum up very neatly both his perspective on the matter and the importance of the international conjuncture for a successful coup: "Previous coups were only successful with support from the US. Unfortunately, the US today supports the government."The fact that the pro-coup people who intended to overthrow the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) had engaged in a spree of lobbying in Washington to this effect and developed particularly intricate relations with neo-cons was later disclosed by many high-ranking US officials.
Possibly, when these pro-coup people lost their hope in Washington, they grew bitter against the West in their actions and discourses.
The code names former Gendarmerie Commander and Atatürkist Thought Association (ADD) President Şener Eruygur, who was most ambitious among the four top commanders of the military, i.e., the commanders of the land, air, and naval forces and the gendarmerie, to overthrow the government, had chosen for the US and the EU in the coup plot, named Ayışığı (Moonlight), give important hints about the mindsets of these pro-coup people.
In this plan, the US and the EU were codenamed as “hyena” and “centipede”. The plan listed only domestic measures to be implemented in order to divide the AK Party, manipulate the media and render then-Chief of General Staff Gen. Hilmi Özkök ineffective or incapacitated, but also external measures, such as how to prevent the “hyena” and “centipede's” disapproval of the coup. These external measures included lending support to the resistance against the US in Iraq, telling the general public that the US bombed mosques in Iraq, mobilizing the youth, university students and working people against US imperialism and continuing to disclose the hypocrisy of the EU.
What happened in Honduras, where elected President Manuel Zelaya was overthrown in an overnight coup on June 28, shows that as Örnek had said, even if a coup could be conducted, it is no longer easy to get the international community to recognize it. Although it was a coup conducted by the military in cooperation with the top judiciary and the parliament, the international community still regards Zelaya as the legitimate authority. Even numerous political and legal errors or blunders committed by Zelaya ahead of the coup have not changed how the world views the coup. Although he was deported by force to Costa Rica on June 28, Zelaya mysteriously reappeared on Monday in the Brazilian embassy in his own country thanks to support from the international community, particularly from Brazil and Venezuela. He claims that he traveled over mountains and rivers for 15 hours to reach the capital city of Tegucigalpa, currently blockaded by tanks and military units.
After the three-day curfew it imposed after the coup, the coup administration was forced to contact Zelaya because of pressure exerted by the international community. The symbolic and concrete steps the international community took against the coup are making things harder for the administration in Honduras.
The Honduran ambassador attending the UN Human Rights Council meeting last week was not aware of the disgraceful situation he would find himself in. Brazilian, Mexican and Cuban ambassadors intervened and noted that Honduran Ambassador Urbizo does not represent the Manuel Zelaya government, so he was not allowed to speak and was removed from the hall. "I go out by my own volition and I will come back," the ambassador said, but to no avail.
In his speech, Luiz Lula da Silva, the president of Brazil, the superpower of the region, explained in detail the situation in Honduras and demanded that Zelaya be reinstated. Lula had previously misled Honduran officials on his phone calls with Zelaya and helped Zelaya to enter the country. At his request, the UN Security Council convened yesterday, with its agenda being solely Honduras.
The Organization of American States (OAS) demanded that Zelaya be immediately reinstated and suspended Honduras' membership in the organization. A majority of Latin American countries withdrew their ambassadors from Honduras as a reaction to the coup. The EU decided to halt its assistance to this country and withdrew its diplomats in the country. Despite his generally anti-US rhetoric, Washington, too, sided with Zelaya. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with him, and the US halted its assistance to the country.
The UN suspended its decision to provide technical assistance for the election slated for Oct. 29. The World Bank froze its assistance to the country. On Thursday, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) declared that it still recognizes Zelaya as the legitimate president and it suspended the disbursement of funds amounting to $163 million, which would have been delivered to the coup administration.
It would better if the world had taken similar stances to military coups in the past. Still, it is a positive development for the international community to openly and clearly reject military coups and this is an unambiguous message to the coup aspirants.
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