Farmanyan: Erdogan is trying to consolidate more power in his hands building an unprecedented autocratic regime

ArmInfo. "Turkish democracy has been challenged again on July 15. The military coup d'etat was failed this time and much has been said about that bloody night in  Turkey. Overthrowing of a democratically elected government through  military coup is a devil for any democracy and Turkish people saved  the germs of democracy decisively," Samvel Farmanyan, a member of the  Armenian Delegation to PACE, made such remarks during a debate on the  situation in Turkey at the PACE Autumn Session.  

"However, what happened in Turkey afterwards is a clear drawback from  its democratic track and can be coined as "counter-coup": widespread  arrests, illegal punishments, extended detentions and mistreatment of  thousands of suspects including journalists and intellectuals,  crackdown of media and civil society, witch-hunt in all state  institutions across the country, prolonged state of emergency regime  etc. The voices claiming reintroduction of death penalty in Turkey is  another strong signal to Strasbourg and Brussels," the Armenian  delegate said.

In his words, it could even be argued that there is not much  difference what the perpetrators of the military coup did in 1980 and  what Erdogan has carried out recently. "News coming from Turkey  reminds me of horror and nightmare of Stalin era: Millions of people  living even in remote villages of Soviet Union were officially  accused to be agents of 'western imperialism' and were jailed or  killed.  Today President Erdogan is trying to emulate Stalin putting  "Gulen movement" instead of "western imperialism." Thousands of  people are accused to be followers of the so called "Gulen movement"  while no one frames it clearly what this movement is about and how  hundreds of thousands of people became engaged in this movement in a  country where almost everything is controlled by state institutions,"  Farmanyan said.

Whatever Foreign Minister Chavushoglu said here yesterday, the  delegate went on, the situation behind the curtains in Turkey is  quite obvious: Erdogan is trying to consolidate more power in his  hands building an unprecedented autocratic regime and the voiced  changes to the Constitution is another prove of that intention.  Moreover, increasing engagement in Syria, manipulation over the fight  against terrorist organizations within and outside of Turkey,  challenging Lausanne Treaty, unwillingness to de-blockade illegally  closed border with Armenia and powerful support to Azerbaijan in  Nagorno Karabakh peace process are clear signs of his increasing  neo-ottoman ambitions putting millions of Syrian refugees in parallel  to be political hostages in the hands of Erdogan to blackmail Europe.

"Colleagues, discussion of Turkish democracy today means discussion  of security in tomorrow's Europe and in its neighborhood. We are a  political body and our response should be political. What else should  Erdogan do to push us to put Turkey back on a monitoring track?"  Samvel Farmanyan said for conclusion.