On Mother’s Day, Turkey heard of the death of Kenan Evren (1917-2015), the Turkish general who led the 1980 coup and became president. The coincidence was used in some of the harshest appraisals of Evren’s life. Selahattin Demirtas, co-leader of the opposition People’s Democratic Party, said attending Evren’s funeral would “disrespect the mothers whose children were lost during the coup”.
When a government politician begged off commenting on the news by invoking the tradition of not speaking ill of the dead, he was upbraided by a colleague for denying people the right to condemn Hitler and Stalin.
Politicians across the board boycotted Evren’s military funeral. People everywhere lamented that Evren, despite his conviction last year for leading the coup, had not accounted for the legacy of his putsch.
This legacy includes the so-called “balance sheet” of the coup era. More than half a million people were arrested. Thousands were tortured. Hundreds died in prisons. More than 500 people were sentenced to death. Over 50 were hanged. The list goes on.
The constitution drawn up under Evren remains in place. Turkey is still governed by a main law expressly designed to perpetuate the rationale of the coup. Turkey’s universities are still controlled by the Turkish president. The coup facilitated the transformation of Turkey’s protectionist economy to the liberalised economy of today. The junta officially adopted a “Turk-Islam Synthesis” ideology. Again, the list goes on.
A central cliché that governs many memories of the 1980 coup is that when tanks were seen on street corners, the country gave out “a great sigh of relief”.
As with all clichés, the problem with “the great sigh of relief” is not its truth, but that it deserves to be challenged.
To start, it was the junta’s own line, repeated by its backers. Reflections on Evren’s death remembered how the top American spy in Ankara at the time referred to the junta as “our boys”. The day after the coup, The New York Times’ profile of Evren was titled Friend to the West, Foe of Turkish Terrorists.
The paper’s editorial declared: “Of itself, the bloodless coup in Ankara is a tremor, not an earthquake … It is the announced aim of Turkey’s new military rulers to redeem democracy rather than displace it.”
It also reported: “Until yesterday, the comment heard most often in recent weeks was, ‘Maybe the military ought to take over for awhile’.”
Second, the “great relief” must be placed in its Cold War context, in relation to the Latin American coups of the 1970s and 1980s, the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan, the Iranian revolution, and Greece’s exile from Nato.
“Relief” should not obscure the understanding of real political interests. And today, the “relief” is presented as a tragic contrast with the “balance sheet” that followed.
Too much emphasis on this irony, however, can give cover to those who boosted the coup in the first place. Evren said he would “redeem” democracy – how could we have known that such a nightmare would follow?
The issue is this. The coup, the instances of positive media spin, and the “relief” the army was able to take credit for lived by the very problematic assumptions that politics was the problem and that power is sometimes justified in suspending politics.
Evren closed unions, political parties and newspapers, destroyed archives, outlawed public servants’ joining political or labour organisations, banned all leading politicians from office, and even banned talking about politics in public.
The problem was evidently not simply “terrorists” and inept politicians. The problem was politics itself.
This idea is still alive in Turkey, and is perhaps a most fundamental legacy of the coup. One of the main arguments being put forward by the Turkish government regarding the need to rewrite the country’s coup-era constitution is that more “efficient” governance is required to save the country from its chaotic politics.
Caleb Lauer is a freelance journalist who covers Turkey
IF YOU GO
The flights
FlyDubai flies direct from Dubai to Skopje in five hours from Dh1,314 return including taxes. Hourly buses from Skopje to Ohrid take three hours.
The tours
English-speaking guided tours of Ohrid town and the surrounding area are organised by Cultura 365; these cost €90 (Dh386) for a one-day trip including driver and guide and €100 a day (Dh429) for two people.
The hotels
Villa St Sofija in the old town of Ohrid, twin room from $54 (Dh198) a night.
St Naum Monastery, on the lake 30km south of Ohrid town, has updated its pilgrims' quarters into a modern 3-star hotel, with rooms overlooking the monastery courtyard and lake. Double room from $60 (Dh 220) a night.
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At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
Tuesday's fixtures
Kyrgyzstan v Qatar, 5.45pm
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
