‘US failed to criticize anti-democratic e-memo by Turkish military’

Köksal Akpınar

The US has always supported military coups d’état in Turkey. As of late, this has changed a bit, but still the US administration’s ambivalent stance when the Turkish military issued a threatening e-memorandum – that is, an anti-government declaration posted on its website – on April 27, 2007, was no attitude to be proud of, according to Yasemin Çongar, a prominent pro-democracy journalist in Turkey.

Referring to the US administration’s response to the April 27 memo, Çongar said: “They acted unethically. And I think this embarrassed them later.

They were embarrassed when the [Turkish] government stood up to the military, though they [the US] had failed to take a similar stance, and, more importantly, [they were embarrassed] by the reaction of people with democratic awareness in Turkey.”

She recently responded to questions from the Cihan Magazine, sharing her opinions on various aspects of Turkish politics and life.