Turkey: Postmodern 1997 coup continues to haunt victims

Innocent people were sacked from their jobs, sent to jail and some even had to divorce their spouses during Turkey's 1997 "postmodern" coup, all because they were perceived to be too religious by the then regime.

Anadolu Agency spoke with the victims of that period to mark the 21st anniversary of the events that left people from all walks of life, including students, military officers, men and women deeply scarred.

Nuray Canan Songur, head of Human First Foundation, was one of the many women who suffered due to a ban on headscarves in those days.

Songur recalled she was not allowed to sit for her exam and was in fact arrested for supposedly hindering education, and that too just two weeks before her graduation.

"I was forced to sign a paper saying 'I created an uproar in the class. I hindered my friends' education'.

"But I was the one whose education had been hindered," Songur said of her time at Istanbul University's Cerrahpasa Medical Faculty.

She added that she was sentenced to six months in jail after facing a trial for two years -- all because she chose to wear a headscarf.

Another victim Fatma Aydin Atas said the circumstances in her country back then had forced her to wear a wig instead of a headscarf; she came up with that idea after she was not allowed to sit for her exams because she wore a headscarf.

"I still keep that wig. I didn't throw it because I did not want to forget those days and I wanted to show my children that I had to wear that disgusting wig," Atas, who used to study at Marmara University's Faculty of Communication, said.

- MILITARY'S ROLE IN COUP
In February 1997, the military was involved in the collapse of late Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan's administration amid concerns expressed by generals about the government's alleged Islamist program.

Erbakan government was forced to step down after a a process began on Feb. 28, 1997, date of a meeting of the National Security Council; his Welfare Party was later also outlawed. A new civilian government then took over from Erbakan in a move that became known as Turkey's postmodern coup.

The new administration was then used to enforce the council's orders.

Private schools or foundations with suspected links to religious or conservative groups were shut down and the roles of people observing Islam in public institutions and life -- whether it involved politics, universities, the civil service, judiciary or military -- were restricted.

- MILITARY OFFICERS NOT SPARED
During the postmodern coup, military officers and even their spouses were not spared.

Mustafa Hacimustafaogullari, a retired senior air force colonel, said he was dismissed from the Turkish military at a time when he was serving as squadron leader.

He was accused of being involved in "reactionary activities" and also sent to jail for 28 days.

About the unfair treatment he faced, Hacimustafaogullari said he was among the top 10 students at the Air Force Academy and was a successful officer; his only crime was that he was a religious man.

He said he even had to divorce his wife on paper due to the pressures he faced. According to a written order given to him, officers whose wives wore headscarves were told that their spouses must remove them or they would be dismissed from the military.

He said he then divorced his wife because of this shameful order, only for the sake of keeping appearances and added that they later remarried.

Salih Gursel Pembecicek, who used to work as a sergeant in the Turkish Air Force, said he too went through very tough days during the postmodern coup era because he used to pray while his wife also wore a headscarf.

"They asked us to defend ourselves, but they gave us 28 days jail term no matter what," Pembecicek said.

Murat Karakoca, who studied at a military school and served the country as a soldier for 10 years, said he too was dismissed from the army for similar reasons.

Karakoca said it had been very hard for him to adjust to his new life as he searched for a new job, adding that the dismissed soldiers from that time were ostracized because of the discrimination they faced.

The horror story for Pembecicek and Karakoca did not end there. They suffered again when they faced a hail of bullets and got injured during the July 2016 defeated coup, which was orchestrated by the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO).

- OPPRESSION DUE TO BEARDS
Mehmet Emin Ince, head of Public Health Services at the Provincial Directorate of Health in southern Gaziantep province, recalled how he was unable to graduate just because he kept a beard "according to the Islamic order".

Ince, who used to study at Cumhuriyet University's Medical Faculty in central province of Sivas, eventually got his certificate after 10 long years.

He told Anaoldu Agency he ended up doing his internship at a university in Germany just so that he could complete his education.