Turkey escaped huge disaster in last year’s coup attempt, Doğan Group Honorary Chairman says

MUĞLA

Doğan Group Honorary Chairman Aydın Doğan speaks in a meeting of the Doğan Media Group’s Publishing Principles Committee.

Turkey came back from the brink of a huge disaster on July 15, 2016, the day of the failed coup attempt, Doğan Group Honorary Chairman Aydın Doğan said on July 7.

“One of the important events that happened last year in our country was the treacherous coup attempt of July 15. There is a short time left until its first anniversary. We, as the nation, came back from the verge of a huge disaster on July 15,” Doğan said in a meeting of the Doğan Media Group’s Publishing Principles Committee – a board that supervises media ethics in all Doğan Holding-linked media outlets, including daily Hürriyet and the Hürriyet Daily News.

The committee’s meeting took place in the coastal village of Torba near Bodrum in the Aegean province of Muğla, to which board members as well as various executives and representatives of the Doğan Media Group joined.

“Our people prevented this treacherous coup attempt. They have displayed an extraordinary resistance at the squares, mosques and the parliament. Our President [Recep Tayyip Erdoğan] stood upright. All of the political parties, both ruling and opposition parties, adopted an attitude in favor of democracy and gathered in the Turkish Parliament,” Doğan said.

“On July 15 [2016], those in the Turkish military and police department against the coup, which consists of a big majority, struggled heroically. The treacherous putschists that night raided our newspapers and TV channels with brutal force and tried to prevent our broadcasts. It is quite meaningful that the putschists targeted only our [Doğan Media Group] newspapers and TV stations, as well as the [state broadcaster] TRT,” he added.

“I would like to say proudly that when the court of events that night was uncertain, we, as the Doğan Media Group, struggled hand in hand. We did not give a free passage to the putschists and put up a resistance against them. Without thinking for a second, without hesitation, we adopted an attitude in favor of democracy. If there is no democracy in a country, there is no media either. That’s why we put up a struggle. I commemorate our July 15 martyrs here and I wish health and wellbeing to our veterans,” Doğan said. 


‘Issues to pay attention to in struggle with Gülenists’

Doğan touched on the trials of suspects over alleged links to what the government calls the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (FETÖ).

“The trials of FETÖ-linked traitors are continuing. It is our biggest expectation that these traitors receive the punishment they deserve in front of law. But there are also issues to take into consideration in the fight against FETÖ. The FETÖ accusation should not be turned into a tool to be used to defame anybody. It is wrong and offensive to stigmatize [people] with FETÖ [charges]. It is also not a good thing for our democracy, or in terms of judiciary,” he said. 

Doğan also referred to the “justice march” from Ankara to Istanbul initiated by main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu on June 15, which is expected to culminate in a large rally in the Maltepe district on Istanbul’s Asian side on July 9.

“It is our utmost desire that this march is completed without an incident. That the march is completed without any unpleasant incident occurring will be one of the indicators that our democracy has matured. I hope this march will serve to increase the quest for justice that everyone wants,” he said.