Eurasia And Eme Subcommittee on Europe

Turkey After the July Coup Attempt Eurasia And Eme Subcommittee on Europe

On July 15, 2016, an attempt was made to overthrow the Turkish government; during the chaos and conflict on the night, 240 Turkish civilians were killed, and the Turkish Parliament bombed from the air. This and the following upheaval that followed has been a traumatic experience for the people of Turkey. The United States stands by them in our support for democracy and the rule of law. Journalists, secularists, military officers, government officials who did not agree with President Erdogan's vision for Turkey, they were arrested, 10,000 of them, and they have been arrested, and a number of them have been tortured. The Turkish Government is blaming its travail on Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish religious philosopher living in exile on a Pennsylvania farm. The claim that he personally planned and ordered the coup has been accepted by many Turkish citizens despite the lack of substantial evidence to indicate that. The Turks have been wonderful allies of the American people. The government's current witch hunt that sees disloyal Gulenists behind every door is bound to backfire. The fear and tension created by a thuggish coup and by a heavy-handed response is not serving the Turkish people well.