Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (center) attended a performance of his own opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail (Abduction from the Seraglio) in Berlin in 1789. Wikicommons/ Theaterwissenschaftliche Sammlung der Universität zu Köln. Some rights reserved.The whole experience was psychedelic, even for seasoned observers of Turkish politics, most of whom were first-hand witnesses or indeed victims of the periodic interventions of the “guardians of the republic” – in 1960, 1971, 1980, 1997 and, for that matter, 2007.
Fighter jets and helicopters flying over Istanbul and Ankara, dropping bombs on police headquarters and the parliament, sporadically opening fire on civilians; tanks and platoons occupying central locations, among them the two bridges on the Bosphorus, the Ataturk airport, TV stations and General Staff headquarters; a president defying the mutiny on Facetime and calling the “nation” to take to the streets; a quick denouement which left 265 dead, 1440 wounded and an even stronger “strongman” behind.
No wonder, then, that media coverage of the putsch was, and still is, in disarray, where facts are mixed with rumours and lies, making a farce out of a tragedy that has been in the making long before July 15. “Seeking what is true is not seeking what is desirable”, Albert Camus once said, but it is what needs to be done, if only to be one step closer to what is desirable. So let us try to take the bull by the horns and question some of the “truths” that have been showered on us since that fateful night.
