Frankfurt/Main. In the Ukraine war, Turkey regularly provokes the West. Experts say: This is also due to Putin’s “Trojan horse” in Ankara.
The massive suspect coup attempt in Turkey was now almost eight years ago – and yet its effects can still be felt today. In the days following July 15, 2016, over 24,000 military personnel were arrested. High-ranking officers also fell victim to the “cleansing operations” in the Turkish Armed Forces TSK (Turkish: Türk Silahli Kuvvetleri) – including 150 generals out of a total of 330. If you add over 16,000 cadets, who were also dismissed, that’s the number of military officers , who were released after the coup attempt, numbered over 40,000. The “purges” bear the signature of one man: Dogu Perincek.
Many of those affected were arrested and tortured. The images of the officers being taken away in groups and in sports halls went around the world. Officers with clear signs of torture were presented to the cameras. The accusation was that they were putschists who had committed treason against their fatherland. However, only around 3,000 military personnel were convicted of attempting a coup. The rest were no longer allowed to return to work. Erdogan later called the coup attempt a “gift from God.”
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Türkiye: Erdogan finds important supporter in Perincek – what makes him tick?
The President had in Dogu Perincek an active supporter for his approach. Perincek is chairman of the left-wing nationalist party “Vatan Partisi”. Later, after the coup attempt, it emerged that lists had been drawn up of people who were not on Perincek’s line, Mesut Yilmaz tells this editorial team. Yilmaz is a former deputy director of police intelligence in Istanbul. He is also one of the victims of the purges in the state apparatus. Today he lives in the USA.
Mehmet Dagci also confirms the existence of such lists. “In these lists, people were divided into religious, atheist, Alevi, Kurdish, left, right, socialist. These innocent people were oppressed, deprived of their freedom and marginalized because of their faith, their identity and their different views,” says the former colonel Marine in conversation with our editorial team. Dagci has written a book about the background to July 15, 2016. He also lives in exile in the US today.
If you take a closer look at Perincek, you quickly see that he is anti-Western and, above all, against NATO. This is of course remarkable – after all, it is Turkey itself NATO member. Perincek repeatedly speaks openly about the alleged imperialism of the Americans and meets with representatives of the Iranian, Chinese and, above all, Russian governments.
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“Russia is currently an ally of the Türkiye at the frontline. The fight against American imperialism and its henchmen in Ukraine is also Turkey’s fight. The expansion of NATO to the east means an intensification of the threat to Turkey. In this regard, we will be with Russia on the Ukrainian front,” Perincek said in an interview with Russian news agency Ria Novosti.
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Türkiye: Perincek wanted to overthrow the government – then he made a deal with Erdogan
Ideologically, Perincek is flexible. While he used to be more inclined towards socialism and Maoism, today he is more inclined towards that fascism very close. His partner Erdogan, on the other hand, is nationalist-Islamist. Nevertheless, their collaboration benefited both of them greatly. Perincek was arrested in 2008 along with various generals because of his membership in the underground organization “Ergenekon” – the group’s goal was to overthrow the government. Abdullah Gül was the president at the time.
Ultimately, Erdogan and Perincek reached a grim agreement. “Perincek’s goal was to end the Ergenekon trials. Erdogan, for his part, wanted to end the 2013 corruption investigations against him and his colleagues,” says the former colonel. The goal was achieved, no one is talking about Ergenekon or the corruption investigations against Erdogan anymore. Perincek’s influence on Erdogan, but especially on the armed forces, is great. The Türkiye is currently further away from the West than ever before.
Critic about Erdogan ally Perincek: “Russia’s Trojan horse”
Perincek’s closeness to Russia is obvious. “He is Russia’s Trojan horse in Turkey and therefore NATO,” says Cemil Celik, former judge of the Supreme Military Administrative Court in Ankara, to our editorial team. The lawyer was arrested a few days after the coup attempt in 2016 and initially taken to a sports hall along with 38 other judges. He was tortured there for two days, says the lawyer, who now lives in exile in Germany. “Perincek has turned the direction of the Turkish military from the West to Eurasia,” Celik said. Next to Hungary It was primarily Turkey that blocked the membership of Finland and Sweden in NATO. Only after a long tug of war and Washington’s promise to sell at least F-16 aircraft to Turkey did Ankara ratify NATO expansion.
Erdogan and Perincek shake hands: A lot has changed in Turkey after the officers were fired. © picture alliance / AA | Turkish Presidency / Murat Cetinmuhurdar / Handout
A lot has changed as a result of the dismissal of officers in Turkey, says the former military judge. “Many of the fired generals opposed military operations in Iraq or Syria. The Turkish military is embarking on adventures that are damaging to the country,” says Celik. Since 2018, parts of northeast Syria (Kurdish: Rojava) have been controlled by the Turkish army occupied.
Above all, Perincek is a threat to the Western defense alliance. He demanded at the 70th anniversary of the NATO membership its end. “Turkey’s withdrawal from NATO will accelerate the collapse of the Atlantic Alliance. Turkey will break the NATO chains and be free,” he said at his party headquarters on February 17, 2022. “Let us leave NATO and become the leaders of Asian civilization.”
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These are sharp tones that raise the question of how much Erdogan listens to Perincek. Is Turkey actually in danger of leaving NATO? There is no reason to fear this – the country is too economically dependent on the West for that. Important investors come from the West, as does the weapons technology. Conversely, NATO is also dependent on Ankara – you cannot afford to have Turkey as an ally and at the same time an important buffer zone against it Iran and to do without in the Middle East. This interdependence leads to enduring each other. In addition, Erdogan recently confirmed his withdrawal from the office of president. It is not yet clear who could succeed him.
Why is Perincek so desperate to turn away from the West? Observers have a clear theory about this: NATO is also a community of values that does not allow a “deep state”, a “state within a state”, to which Perincek, as a military man, obviously belongs. This has its origins in the Turkish army. Whoever controls the army controls the country, that can be said about Turkey. The first freely elected prime minister ruled from 1950 until his overthrow by the Military 1960. He was then hanged on September 17, 1961. The case is in line with the other military coups in the country: If the government abandons the line of the generals and thus the “deep state”, a coup will take place.