Issue 79 · Autumn 2016

Dear Reader,
Turkish democracy was exposed to a serious danger on July 15, 2016. The failed
coup attempt resulted in the victory of Turkey’s democracy thanks to the resistance
of Turkish people to the coup.Turkey’s democracy has a history stricken by 4 coups
and numerous coup attempts. July 15 coup attempt not merely bears a resemblance
to the coups in the past but also differs from them.
July 15 coup attempt was executed by the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization
(FETÖ) that presents itself as a religious association or a non-governmental
organization, led by Fethullah Gülen. The main objective of the Fethullahist
Terrorist Organization has been to infiltrate into the governmental organizations,
notably intelligence, police and judical institutions. This terrorist organization
has tried to direct the government de jure and the politics in Turkey, by illegal
means, according to its own agenda by creating an organization hierarchy of its
own that was different from the governmental hierarchy. As such, Fethullahism has
transformed into a “parallel state structure” against the official state institutions,
and attempted a coup d’etat on July 15, 2016.
Coup attempts as well as the sociology, traditions, organization model, ideological
and religious identities and financial sources of the attempters, and similarities
to and differences from previous attempters, and the relationship of all these to
democracy and freedoms are main points of interest for social and political sciences.
In bilig ‘s exclusive issue “ July 15 Coup Attempt and Turkey’s Democracy”, both
coup attempt and Parallel State Structure, Fethullahist Terrorist Organization,
carrying out this attempt was analytically evaluated by academicians from various
social sciences diciplines. As such, the first academic studies, regarding July 15
Coup Attempt, have been issued in bilig. We expect that the academic studies
issued in our journal will pave the way for new debates on Turkey’s democracy and
social sciences.
Issue Editor
Dr. Murat Yılmaz