20th–21st Terms Member of Parliament for Kırıkkale Kemal Albayrak: “THE SILENT ARE SPEAKING”

Journalist Müyesser Yıldız has been reporting such detailed accounts from the July 15 coup trial hearings that what has been revealed is making many people uneasy.

It is still remembered that Kılıçdaroğlu described July 15 as a “controlled coup” on January 17, 2018, and later called it “theater.” As the issue returns to public debate, it seems that those who do not want these events to be fully clarified are increasingly gripped by fear.

In the Turkish Grand National Assembly (TBMM), the response “it was thrown away” to Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu’s request for information about the parliamentary investigation commission’s report is particularly striking.

Why were the investigation reports destroyed?

On October 4, 2016, the Investigation Commission, established with the joint will of the Justice and Development Party (AK Party), the Republican People’s Party (CHP), the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), all represented in Parliament, began its work and requested information from numerous institutions and organizations. However, some of the key figures at the highest level refused to testify.

Many mysteries and secrets still remain. But archives do not forget.

The issue has begun to resurface because the voices demanding that those responsible for this atrocity—whoever they may be—be identified are growing louder.

There are lives lost and material and moral damages that can never be repaired.

Mahir Kaynak used to say, “When an event occurs, look at who benefited from it, and you will find the perpetrators.” That is the most important point.

In the early days, so much true and false information circulated that anyone who spoke out paid a price. Today, however, the determination of courageous journalists and politicians who are helping expose these dark affairs through the courts seems to be unsettling those lacking moral character who were involved.

The deepest part of human experience often lies not in what is spoken, but in what remains unspoken. Even when known facts are eventually told, part of the truth always remains silent, waiting for time and changing balances of power.

Could this be one of those cases?

Who was the hero, and who was the traitor? If the events of July 15 were fully clarified, perhaps new truths would emerge. AK Party MP Şamil Tayyar had already suggested as much.

Those who do not want this issue to be clarified should be examined and questioned.

There is a saying: “Maggots do not infest an open wound.” Politicians should carefully reflect on this. There can be no cure for pain whose cause remains unknown.

Looking at what has happened today—the dependency of institutions, the destruction of civil society, the arbitrary practices and unlawful decrees that devastated countless lives, the centralized control of the media and religious institutions, the erosion of freedom and property rights, the loss of Parliament’s effectiveness, the transformation of legality into obedience and unquestioning loyalty, the stripping of the people’s legitimacy for exploitation—could all of this be the consequence of the regime change carried out to establish one-man rule?

Why did the former Prime Minister describe it as “the worst project” and then fall silent?

Should we not also examine the collapse in every field, the plans of exploitative powers, external developments, and the connections between these events and those unfolding in neighboring countries?

Are these not the real questions that deserve investigation?

The opposition may have supported the government under the circumstances of that time, but if these matters are now being discussed and written about, they must be questioned.

What has happened to the CHP—trustee appointments, annulment debates, traps set through state resources, and injustices—did not emerge overnight.

These matters must be clarified.

The opposition has a responsibility to question them and to examine these trials.

Even the European Court of Human Rights follows these issues. Is it not a political responsibility to examine them as well?

Why were those in office never questioned?

Do those who caused these injustices bear no responsibility?

Laws are not scales that measure morality. Yet illuminating the law and uncovering hidden truths is a moral responsibility that gives law its spirit and meaning.

No matter how carefully secrets are concealed, a secret known by two people is no longer a secret. If not today, then tomorrow.

Those who are guilty fear the revelation of secrets because their character lacks morality.

The innocent, even when subjected to injustice, do not fear.

Darkness demands to be illuminated.

Morality does not seek applause.

The pursuit of truth is itself a reward.

June 27, 2026

Kemal Albayrak