On July 15, 2016, Turkey foiled an atrocious coup attempt. A group of troops affiliated with the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) terrorized Ankara, Istanbul and a small Aegean town where President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was on vacation, with jets, helicopters, tanks and heavy weapons. There is no need to write about what happened, as the world is already familiar with it. FETÖ operatives killed and injured countless civilians and bombed government offices.
The Turkish nation undauntedly poured onto the streets in the face of this atrocity to defend democracy, the elected president and the government. They heroically resisted against jets, helicopters, tanks and weapons with Turkish flags in their hands. Likewise, the majority of the military and police fought against the putschists along with the nation. The putschists could not accomplish their goals, and the coup soldiers who could not flee are currently on trial.
But what did Europe do in the face of the coup attempt? They silently watched the course of events on the night of July 15. For some reason, European politicians did not side with the resisting civilians of Turkey, unlike their support for the cases of Hungary, China, Chile, Spain and Greece. Just as they did during the Egyptian coup, they remained silent on the incidents as if they wanted to see the putschists succeed.
When countries with predominantly Muslim populations are in question, Europe's pseudo-democrats prefer to side with putschist and fascist generals instead of elected governments. European politicians seem to forget about the core values such as democracy, freedoms and human rights when Muslims are concerned.
European democrats lecturing on democracy on every occasion seem to think that democracy is a luxury only available to Christian countries. They did not respond to the coup attempt on the night of July 15 or the following morning. They remained indifferent to what happened, seemingly with hopes that Erdoğan might have been overthrown.
But their expectations did not come true. The Turkish nation repelled the attack on democracy, risking their lives.
Messages from Europe started coming when it became obvious that the putschists had been vanquished. Those messages were not sincere or genuine. Even worse, they paid "solidarity" visits to Turkey long after the coup attempt took place. These pseudo-democrats seemed to have been disappointed with the defeat of the putschists.
Besides this, Greece, which experienced a coup in its recent history, refused to extradite the putschists who fled to Greece in a military helicopter on the morning of July 16, which demonstrated that they did not learn any lessons from their past and are not sincere regarding EU values.
Germany, Belgium, Austria and the Netherlands sadly gave asylum to the coup plotters. Recently, a German journalist who knows a lot about Turkey told me, "I am ashamed that the two coup generals who ordered to open fire on civilians during the coup attempt recently arrived in Germany from Greece."
The protection of these murderers in Europe is worrisome, and the true democrats of Europe are also unable to understand this. The EU still has its head in the sand even though Turkey presented all kinds of evidence, and even prominent European media outlets such as Der Spiegel, which are known for their unfriendly demeanor regarding Turkey, revealed that FETÖ-linked members of the military organized the coup attempt.
Also, countries including the Netherlands and Austria attempted to prohibit Turkish ministers from attending meetings and rallies focusing on the July 15 democracy resistance.
On Sunday, I attended a commemoration ceremony in Vienna in the memory of July 15 martyrs. I saw that those prohibiting the attendance of Turkish ministers did not have any problems with FETÖ since they serve their anti-Turkey interests.
It is understandable that they might not favor Erdoğan or the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party). After all, they do not want to see Turkey as a democratic, social and strong country and want Turkey to be dependent on them.
In spite of that, it is against conscience to support the outlawed PKK, which has killed thousands in Turkey, and FETÖ, which attempted to topple the democratic regime by killing countless people. With such an attitude, European pseudo-democrats are losing their credibility in the eyes of the Islamic world.
Millions of Muslims think that they esteem democracy only for themselves. Likewise, Muslims living in EU countries also question whether the EU criteria and values only count for the Christians in EU countries. It is time for the true democrats of Europe to stop this. They must not allow the hypocritical discourses of pseudo-democrats to continue.