When you can't find fresh “goose to unfeather”...

Although the Istanbul Canal project was brought up by the AKP on the eve of the June 2011 elections, no one was interested in the impact on the results. The same government brought the Istanbul Canal project to the agenda in December 2019, and this time more actively. Behind the economic, geostrategic, and geopolitical goals, there was an internal political factor that the AKP never gave up: the goal was to drive Ekrem İmamoğlu, who managed to take over the Istanbul municipality from Mr. Erdoğan 25 years later, and the main opposition party into a corner.

Undoubtedly, it is the goal and desire of every government that thinks about the future of the country to try to implement large projects, provided that the opportunities are considered; Far from being romantic and sentimental, these projects open important doors to the country's future as they are based on realism.

While the government is trying to present the Istanbul Canal in this way, the mayor of Istanbul continues to openly oppose this project. Both sides use the "Future of Turkey" card: one in a positive sense and the other in a negative sense.

While the geostrategic and geopolitical side of the issue is of interest to politicians and diplomats, the Montreux Convention of 1936 also included the military in the Istanbul Canal - Black Sea Theory. Not only the government but also the Supreme Court, yes, yes, the Supreme Court took the opportunity of the fact that a journalist close to the government posted the appeal of the 104 retired admirals, who described the government's determination to implement the Istanbul Canal project as an "attempt to repeal the Montreux Convention", on the Internet at night. For us, who have so far been familiar with the joint statements of the Prosecutor General's Office of Azerbaijan and the Ministry of Internal Affairs declaring the opposition "criminals" from the very beginning of the case, seeing the Turkish Supreme Court take stands so openly has gone beyond the current fantasy (after that, God is great).

The appeal of 104 retired admirals to the nation for political power has been an opportunity because the "coup" jargon, which had not been in circulation for about 5 years, returned.

Turkey's Islamist policy has always skillfully used the slang of "military coup" to its advantage, so there was no need to dwell on the circumstances under which 104 retired admirals attempted a coup.

It was no surprise that the “coup initiative” was again "linked" to the main opposition party, and the men of the Minister of Internal Affairs, Süleyman Soylu, puzzled their brains and searched everywhere until the early hours of the morning, and the political affiliations of the families of some of the admirals were reported in the media (What a stupid thing to say - Look at these admirals, both themselves and their family members are members of opposition parties).

At the time of writing this article, I believe that at least half of the 10 admirals under police surveillance will have been arrested and that the government will once again use the slang of "military coup initiative" next time in its upcoming or distant election campaign, no matter what the circumstances, please you do not doubt it too. Because although it may seem simple from the outside, in fact, the statement signed by the 104 admirals is the culmination of another war, which has sometimes been secret and sometimes open, between the founding philosophy of the Turkish Republic and the forces that have never reconciled with that philosophy and have never accepted it for 97 years (whether in opposition or in power).

The 104 admirals and the government know this very well. Therefore, they come down hard on the appeal, which has no semantics, except expressing thought and opinion, in an unprecedented way, even with the prosecutor and the court. Note that while the constitution and rules of the secular state are still in force, it is considered normal for a government official to wear a jubbah and a turban to visit a sheikh and pray, and the appeal of 104 retirees regarding the Montreux Convention is a "call for a military coup".

The main reason for this assessment was the announcement of the appeal "at night" (although it turned out that the appeal was posted on the website by a government journalist, not by admirals). Those who follow Turkish politics are well aware that, in the words of former Islamist leader, Necmettin Erbakan, this is a "faso-fiso".

We have written many times before: since last fall, both the government and his party have been trying to keep their supporters in the same direction by directing the processes completely in the ideological direction, trying to revive the "spirit of 1994" when Mr. Erdoğan was elected mayor of Istanbul. The constitutional demands given by the National Security Council on February 28, 1997,  to Prime Minister Erbakan to be implemented played an exceptional role in opening the roads of both Islamist political philosophy and Mr. Erdoğan with a bulldozer. In other words, the Islamist government of the Republic of Turkey, which has been lasting longer even than the Mustafa Kemal Atatürk period, owes much of this political life to the ultimatums issued on February 28, 1997, and April 27, 2007, first by the National Security Council and second by the Chief of General Staff, which were completely unnecessary and strengthened Islamists. Just as the ones who suffered the least damage from the two direct military coups before the ultimatums and one ultimatum were the Islamists, the military coups first passed over Ataturkists as asphalt paving machine.

The Republic of Turkey is experiencing a new stage in the behind-the-scenes ruthless and merciless struggle of the political Islamist government with members of the secular army. Therefore, there is no doubt that some of the 104 admirals will be punished. But this stage will weaken political Islam instead of increasing it. It is impossible for Turkey's most experienced politician and government official, like Mr. Erdoğan, not to know and see this. So what are the reasons for the intensification of this struggle?

• Are these Mr. Erdoğan's inability to deal with sects, which are brought to such a level by him that he can no longer disobey, and the growing pressure of those sects?
• Are these attempts to raise the AKP's rating, which has not risen at all, by openly fighting the armed forces?
• Are these attempts to prevent the upside-down state of the economy from being at the top of the agenda?
• Could the idea that "now is the time to change the regime" be behind the scenes of these processes?

I greet opposition designer, Adalat Valiyev, with the desire to watch the next elections in Turkey...

Mayis Alizade