Turkey, to Pakistanis, is the land of Doner Kababs, Ottoman Palaces, Behloul and apparently coups too, now. Last night was out of a movie with the country’s forces fighting over power. But then the people showed up and just shut everybody up. Respect.
Some factions of the army there went a little cuckoo and decided to take matters into their own hands.
News started rushing in about Istanbul’s main bridges being closed and fighter jets flying low over Ankara. Soon the Turkish PM gave a statement that basically said “Oh no you didn’t. I ain’t taking this sh*t. #Democracy4Evaaa” (Clearly I’m paraphrasing).
The main man, President Erdogan was on ‘vacation’ and no one knew where he was. Taking advantage of the situation the army released a statement saying they were in charge of Turkey. This was soon followed by the PM saying that democracy is still in place and that the military is lying. The sheer amount of confusion in the international press was unprecedented.
IPhone came to the rescue to clear the air
When it seemed like the coup was unfortunately successful, a Turkish news channel face-timed (yes you read that right) the President in and that’s when the army’s coup was washed down the drain. Taking cues from our very own London based Quaid-e-Tehreek Erdogan addressed the nation through a video call!
Erdogan urged the people to basically come out onto the streets and become saviors of Turkish Democracy. What no one in the world expected was to actually see the mass of people that took the President’s call to heart and poured onto the city center and stood in front of the tanks in the name of jamhooriat. The Turkish people took the ‘Har Ghar se Bhutto Nikle Ga’ Naara a little too seriously. But good on them for saving their country from being thrown into the hands of dictatorship.
Turks had left their homes (and their sleep) to stand off against the army and lay down in front of tanks. As time went on the people grew and pressure on the army mounted. Finally Erdogan’s plane was allowed to land (what a vacation the poor guy had) and the coup had officially failed.
Like Pakistan, Turkey has had a troubled relationship with its military because they just kept sneaking into power.
Erdogan was the first stable President the country had seen and the Turkish nation was not ready to see army boots walk the corridors of power. Unlike us, the Turkish people said ‘ab jaane ki baatein ko yaad rakho aur chalay bhi jao‘ because CLEARLY Turkey has moved on and grown. Democracy, the writ of the law and the will of the people reigned supreme and the military was sent packing. The events of this last night will forever be etched in history as the greatest victory for democracy. The Turkish people have taken the phrase jamhooriat ke liye jaan dene ko qurban hai to a whole new level that a lot of us may not reach very soon.
Cover Image via: Business Insider
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