20th-21st Term Kırıkkale Member of Parliament Kemal Albayrak: “Who Benefited from July 15th?”

WHO BENEFITED FROM JULY 15?

In the light of praise and condemnation, when will this nation finally learn the truth behind these secrets? Will there ever be justice that reveals both the victims and those who have become arrogant with power? If there had been constitutional governance, the rule of law, checks and balances, transparency, and a system protecting society against arbitrariness, would these events have happened? Can those portrayed as heroes turn out to be traitors, and those branded as traitors become heroes? Why are the secrets never brought to light? Why are they buried? Are unsolved murders, lost values, exiles, torture, and destroyed lives the destiny of this land? Why are those responsible protected? Would any of this happen in a true state governed by the rule of law?

Çetin Altan used to describe people as “important people” and “valuable people.”

Important people are those who worship power, who know the truth yet abandon it out of fear, self-interest, or corruption. They are the opportunists who reshape themselves according to the regime.

Valuable people, on the other hand, are those who defend the truth regardless of ideology or social circles, those who pay the price for their principles, and those who stand against corruption.

Looking at today’s society, it is possible to distinguish between those who deserve respect and those for whom even a spit would be too valuable.

A writer and politician once shared the following anecdote.

During the September 12 military coup, Ali Baransel was assigned to supervise the entire press.

One day, Kenan Evren read a joke published in a newspaper:

In South America, an expert was asked:

“Which is more difficult: staging a coup or making pickles?”

Without hesitation, the expert replied:

“Staging a coup is easy.”

He continued:

“Making pickles is difficult. You need cucumbers of the same size, vinegar, salt, peppers, lemons, and patience while everything ferments. But for a coup, all you need is three cucumbers standing side by side.”

Angered, Evren summoned Ali Baransel and asked:

“Why didn’t you stop this from being published?”

Baransel replied:

“Sir, it says three cucumbers, not five.”

Evren answered:

“Our coup was carried out by five people, while this says three.”

Then he added:

“You’re right. I overlooked that. It isn’t referring to us.”

That is the humorous side of the story.

But looking at today, the perpetrators and victims of July 15 are praised by some and condemned by others.

In the land of secrets, the light is deliberately darkened.

A government minister says, “It wasn’t FETÖ; it was the United States.”

A former prime minister calls it “the worst project.”

Another official described it as “a theater,” yet never completed that claim.

A ruling party MP stated:

“If this case were fully revealed, those called traitors would become heroes, and those called heroes would become traitors.”

If that is so, isn’t it obvious who does not want the truth to emerge?

Those who said the parliamentary investigation was thrown away, destroyed, or that key witnesses never testified are still alive.

If the coup was directed against the government, why did the government become its greatest beneficiary?

There are countless unanswered questions.

Journalist Müyesser Yıldız closely followed many of the trials and wrote extensively about them. She, too, paid a price for doing so.

Unfortunately, in our country, regardless of status, those who defend the truth are pushed aside, while political turncoats who constantly change direction are promoted through social media as “important people.”

There are many examples.

Was this moment awaited to place three million people on terrorism lists and eliminate countless qualified individuals through emergency decrees (KHKs)?

Were the December 17–25 investigations, Doğu Perinçek’s statement claiming to possess 38 corruption files concerning Erdoğan, and the Yenikapı political alliance all leading to this?

Drug trafficking networks, hierarchical corruption, religion-based financial patronage, plans to appoint individuals accused of crimes to public institutions, legitimacy transferred from the nation to systems of exploitation, the disappearance of political dialogue, the weakening of Parliament, and privileged circles treating corruption as legitimate—

Were all these waiting for July 15?

Why are those responsible for these injustices neither identified nor investigated?

Why is the loss of 253 lives, together with the material and moral devastation, still being concealed?

Why are these questions still not being examined?

Yet archives do not forget.

They await a constitutional state governed by the rule of law, checks and balances, limited government, an independent judiciary, and the sovereignty of the nation.

Reason, science, law, democracy, and morality question the darkness on the path toward constitutional governance.

15 July 2026

Kemal Albayrak