TURKEY MATTER
FIRST ANNIVERSARY OF DEMOCRATIC VICTORY IN TURKEY: SALUTE TO AN OUTSTANDING REVOLUTION
The Center for Global Peace Initiative (CGPI) in solidarity with the people of Turkey commemorates today, the 15th of July 2017 as the first anniversary of the victory of democratic forces over those of dictatorship and backwardness
On today’s anniversary, we salute the heroic feat of the Turkish people when they came out in their thousands defying the bullets, tanks, armored vehicles and the hovering helicopters of the terrorist coup plotters
We recall how exactly a year ago, a group of renegade soldiers serving interests other than those of the Turkish state decided to seize power on behalf of their self-acclaimed leader, Fethullah Gulen. The enormity of the events of that night was more than a mere coup. It was the utilization of maximum terror tactics to subvert a democratically elected government and in the same vein subdue the will of the people.
The revolutionary resistance against the coup by the people remained a watershed in the history of Turkey. Prior to that resistance, the progressive march of the Turkish people had been scuttled many times through perennial military interventions. The bold statement made by the people on that night was that, never will Turkey go the way of another banana republic where the people will live in fear of a band of rogues holding them to ransom
As a research based organization we are perturbed about the incessant incursion of the military into politics and the devastations that go with it. The military institutions in most Third World countries (TWCs) especially Africa have turned almost inwardly inimical against the same people whose sovereignty they were expected to protect as recently was the case in Egypt
We urge the international community led by the United Nations to always rise as one voice in denouncing military coups and also in following it up with deterrent actions if only to be definitive that the era of brigandage is gone.
We also congratulate the government of Turkey over the verdict of confidence passed on it by the people as the recent referendum showed. That the government was able to secure such a feat even in the midst of the sanitization of those areas of government breached by the insidious operations of the Gulen movement, is a testimony of the sense of camaraderie between the government and the people
Finally we salute once again the heroic feat of those martyrs of July 15 2016, who stood in the way of terror attacks to defend the sovereignty, freedom and independence of Turkey. By their action they have bequeathed to posterity a legacy of civility, unity and patriotism all anchored on democratic values
Long live the Turkish people
Long live the Republic of Turkey
Long live Nigeria
‘Aluta continua, victoria Ascerta’
Signed
Comrade Ayinde Yekinni S.
Tel: 08026134942
E-mail: laidetop06@yahoo.com
