If July 15 had succeeded!...

The day before yesterday was the 10th anniversary of the July 15 coup attempt.

Although much new information, documents, and allegations have emerged in the intervening period, the narratives from nearly 10 years ago were repeated on this anniversary as well... It was questioned what Turkey's situation would be today if the US-NATO-CIA-MOSSAD-backed coup attempt had succeeded, and July 15 was defined as “the day all of Israel's plans collapsed.”

To understand the whole picture, let's rewind the film to the very beginning.

In 2002, at a symposium titled “How to create a peace belt around Turkey?” held at the War Academies Command, the criticism of the EU by the then-Secretary General of the NSC, General Tuncer Kılınç, and the late Prof. Erol Manisalı, and Kılınç's argument that Turkey should seek a new path with Russia and Iran, seemed to be the beginning of everything.

What followed is well-known; starting in 2007, the Ergenekon and Balyoz frame-ups began... By coincidence, Tuncer Kılınç and Erol Manisalı were also detained and tried within the scope of these frame-ups.

Erdoğan - Bush Meeting

At that time, not only the victims of the frame-ups but even those who fervently supported them claimed that the decision to press the button on Ergenekon was made during the meeting between Erdoğan and then-US President Bush in Washington on November 5, 2007. Even the 26th Chief of General Staff İlker Başbuğ, who was arrested on charges of managing a terrorist organization, said, “The Bush administration supported the game played against the TSK (Turkish Armed Forces).”

If you ask what their problem was; they were afraid of Turkey's axis shifting, and they saw “Kemalism” as the culprit for this.

Indeed, in a report prepared by the International Crisis Group before the Ergenekon operations, while it was emphasized that “Kemalism” was a test Turkey had to pass, views on the TSK and “neo-nationalism” were placed right next to it, and for example, the following section of an article dated July 12, 2007, by the then-Ankara Representative of Cumhuriyet Newspaper, Mustafa Balbay, who would later be arrested in the Ergenekon case and who criticized the AKP's policies, was included:

“Russia is pleased with AKP policies and says: ‘Wonderful, they have withdrawn their hands from Asia’; Greece is pleased and says: ‘Wonderful, they will make concessions in Cyprus’; the Greek side is pleased and says: ‘Wonderful, they will do everything to set back the Turkish Cypriot side’; the US is pleased and says: ‘We can make them do everything we could not make them do openly through secret treaties...’; the EU is pleased and says: ‘If we had appointed a governor-general to Turkey, they could not have done better than this’”

Let's also share a note from 2009.

When US President Obama came to Turkey and spoke at the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM), the then-AKP MP Zeynep Dağı gifted him a book titled “Turkey Between Democracy and Militarism: Post-Kemalist Perspectives.” The author of the book was her husband, Prof. İhsan Dağı. İhsan Dağı, who served in TESEV and the Association for Liberal Thinking, was co-chair of the US Fulbright Commission, and wrote for the Gülen movement's newspaper Zaman, commented on the Ergenekon operations on NTV on January 9, 2009, as follows:

“Ergenekon is not a judicial matter; it is based on strategic preferences at the national-international level. In the operation, the AKP's will is decisive, or rather, it is not even in question... When we look at international dynamics, I think that NATO, the US, and the election of Obama have created a more global will regarding the dissolution of anti-Western, Eurasianist, pro-Russian structures in Turkey. Especially within the military, there are critical positions that have emerged very clearly in recent years regarding anti-Americanism, and even that Turkey should get rid of US and NATO imperialism. These assessments are also being made at the global level, and at this point, I think there is also a global influence aimed at cleansing these elements from the TSK.”

It is known what happened at the end of all these processes; especially the Naval Forces Command was targeted, war plans were leaked, the Cosmic Room was entered, and Greece occupied and armed the islands in the Aegean one by one... “Barzanistan” was recognized... Contributions were made to the “Crusaders” tearing apart Syria and Libya.

If Trump and NATO Leaders Had Seen the Bombed TBMM

As for July 15; 10 years later, it is still being told that the US, NATO, and Israel were behind the coup attempt.

Erdoğan himself, while using the term “pawn of imperialism” for “FETÖ” at the commemoration ceremony at the TBMM the day before yesterday, said, “July 15 is an updated imperialist project that aims to revive the Treaty of Sèvres, which internal tutelage centers carried out in cooperation with external circles, and to turn Turkey into a colonial country. There is not only a coup attempt there, but also a total occupation attempt.”

What the Chairman of the TBMM Committee on Internal Affairs, Süleyman Soylu, said was also interesting; he noted that “July 15 is part of a broader plan aimed at taking Turkey out of its own line of independence and forcing it to bow to the new order intended to be established in the Middle East.”

After these important findings, let's first ask this; what was the enthusiasm in the face of Trump, one of the main owners of that imperialist project, coming to Turkey just one week before the 10th anniversary of July 15, and the pride felt in the NATO Summit being held in Ankara?!

By the way, why weren't Trump and NATO leaders taken to the place where the TBMM was bombed and shown their handiwork (!)?.. Excuse me, I forgot; the TBMM was closed due to the summit, wasn't it?!

Where Are We 10 Years Later and Where Are We Going?

Let's continue with the evaluations regarding the results of July 15.

A pro-government writer answered the question, “Where are we 10 years after the July 15 treacherous coup attempt?” by saying, “We are in a much better place, on a much more solid and healthy ground. Turkey continues on its path by adding strength to its power, increasing its prosperity and security internally, and making its weight felt externally.”

Let's just remind you of these: then why is our economy in this state, why are our retirees condemned to hunger?.. After Trump asked Erdoğan in the meeting on September 25 to stop buying oil and natural gas from Russia, wasn't a 20-year contract signed to purchase LNG worth 40-45 billion dollars from the US? Isn't there an effort to get rid of the S-400s?

Another writer stated that the target of the July 15 coup was not just Erdoğan, but “the redetermination of the state's geopolitical route” and “the influencing of Turkey's position within the Eurasian balances,” and predicted that in the event of success, “FETÖ” would have sided with Ukraine in the Ukraine-Russia war and with the US in the US-Iran war.

Of course, that's how it would have been. Fine; but didn't Erdoğan say at the NATO Summit, “As the country with the largest land army in Europe, we are striving to put our capabilities at the service of the alliance at the stage where it is needed.”?

Didn't Foreign Minister Fidan say exactly the following after the summit?

“While Mr. Trump was here, there was an opportunity to discuss issues that are extremely important to us in our region; that is, the Lebanon issue, the Palestine issue, the Syria issue, the ongoing negotiations with Iran, and the war regarding Ukraine to our north... In all of these, America, like Turkey, is a major actor, and it is extremely important in terms of strategy that the two leaders are in synchronization on this issue and that they put forward a practice with a common understanding. I think the second important leg of this meeting was the mutual answers our leaders gave to the question of ‘where do we stand on regional and international issues,’ and the consensus reached here.”

Likewise, while Fidan characterized Hezbollah and Hamas as “Iran's proxies in the region” and stated that the new Iraqi administration should fight them, didn't he say, “Iran claims that it has been pursuing a preventive security policy by keeping proxies in these countries for a long time, just like the Israelis occupying the rest of the region as part of their security”? Upon this, didn't Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Esmail Baghaei react by saying, “It is a question mark for us how they reached such a strange comparison... We ask our Turkish friends to align their analyses with the existing realities and to refrain from repeating analyses that will serve the abuse of the Israeli regime.”?

We passed these; didn't the NATO Summit final declaration include decisions on supporting Ukraine and not allowing Iran to possess nuclear weapons?

Isn't it the case that not only those who criticize the government's foreign policy, but even Yeni Şafak writer Prof. Süleyman Seyfi Öğün, who was deemed worthy of a Presidential award, points out that these decisions will bring Turkey face to face with both Russia and Iran, that “putting Iran on NATO's target list will mean that Israel will also be involved from now on,” and that “pitting Turkey against Iran will benefit Israel”?

In short; while “FETÖ, the pawn of imperialism, was not given passage” on July 15, haven't all our doors now been opened wide to imperialism?..

Anyway, Erdoğan himself announced our “greatest gain” in this process; thanks to that, we have switched to the “Presidential government system that eliminates dual-headedness”!..

The system he criticized in 1993 as “a proposal of American imperialism to us”... What more could there be!..

Müyesser YILDIZ

July 17, 2026