“Be ready! If you look more closely, we have yet to finish this. We just inserted a comma,” President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said in a recent speech after narrating the story of a man who was killed by soldiers during a bloody coup attempt on July 15.
According to TR724 columnist Selin Tanbay, Erdoğan’s speech was nothing but the first sign of what she calls “a new plot in the making” against sympathizers of the Gülen movement and other dissident voices.
Giving his Ramadan holiday message on Sept. 13, Erdoğan kept his eyes from the teleprompter and let some of his plans slip, Tanbay said. She also added that pro-government social media users and journalists have begun to claim that another coup attempt will take place soon.
“Some figures talk about how the new coup would take place, while some urge citizens to take necessary steps against it. … Among them is making A, B and C plans to execute tens of thousands of imprisoned Gülen sympathizers,” Tanbay stated.
Recalling Erdoğan’s earlier remarks that the coup attempt was a gift from God to root out Gülen sympathizers, Tanbay also brought to mind another of the president’s comments: “We have had the opportunity to do what we cannot do in normal times.”
Retired Col. Hasan Atilla Uğur has been praised by the pro-government Yeni Şafak daily and Doğu Perinçek, Erdoğan’s latest ally in the crackdown against the movement, for his anticipation of a coup attempt prior to July 15, Tanbay said.
The retired officer again said: “Be ready for the second attempt. It is very soon. I tell you with certain intelligence. The second one will be more bloody,” the columnist wrote.
“He said no later than November in response to a question of when,” she added.
Tanbay said Uğur has urged the government to purge the National Intelligence Organization, the police department and military and prison staff in order to prevent the second attempt.
Pro-gov’t journalist calls for relentless fight in every street
“The second figure to voice such allegations was [Yeni Şafak editor-in-chief] İbrahim Karagül. … ‘Each and every individual in every house in every street should establish lines of defense,’ Karagül said, implying a manhunt in the streets, adding: “Our only responsibility is to be ready for the greatest fight’,” wrote Tanbay.
Another pro-government journalist, Fatih Tezcan, was one of those people who used the word “coup” when nobody was aware of what was happening on the night of July 15, Tanbay said.
“Now he says: ‘I speak as an ordinary citizen: I swear to God that there will be a recurrence of July 15, but we will have no mercy this time around’.”
Erdoğan’s Twitter army asks gov’t to kill all Gülen sympathizers in jail
Bülent Üstün, a pro-Justice and Development Party (AKP) Twitter troll, has also called on the government to make plans for the massacre of all Gülen sympathizers who are currently behind bars in the event of a second coup attempt in the country, Tanbay said.
What follows are some of the tweets Tanbay quoted to back up the claim.
“All necessary measures should be taken for the immediate killing of all FETÖ members in jail in the event of a second coup attempt. There should be no other inmates in the prisons where FETÖ members are jailed. Special execution teams should be deployed there. FETÖ and its jailed members should know that only the dead bodies of FETÖ members who make escape plans can be taken out of jail.
The guns of prison guards should be taken away, FETÖ members including military members, police officers, prosecutors and judges should be collected in one or two prisons. PÖH [special police units] should operate with the authority to kill 24/7.”
Highlighting that she believes the July 15 coup attempt was Erdoğan’s own shot to eradicate his opponents, Tanbay claimed that the second deliberate attempt will put into motion a full massacre.
Another pro-government journalist, Ömer Turan, also tweeted: “Why the second attempt is coming is that Erdoğan challenged the superior mind in the US who attempted to reconcile with him. A subjective downgrade in [Turkey’s] credit rating by Moody’s after Erdoğan refused to give up in the US is the warning sign of the second coup.” (Turkey Purge)