Addressing a symposium in Ankara on Monday, Turkish Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz said the state’s institutions learned their lessons from the “painful experience” that was the July 15, 2016 coup attempt by military infiltrators of the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ).
The symposium organized by Turkish think-tank, the Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research (SETA), brought together academics, researchers, jurists and journalists. The two-session symposium focused on legal, political and social dimensions of the coup attempt, how it is remembered in collective memory and the transformation of Türkiye during and after the coup attempt.
Yılmaz was deputy chair of the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) at the time of the coup attempt. He told the symposium that 10 years that followed the coup attempt have been an era of comprehensive restructuring. “Our institutions achieved a stronger capacity that can respond to a shifting security environment and new threats (after the coup attempt),” Yılmaz stated.
He emphasized the importance of “assessing major incidents correctly” that could be translated into a social conscience. “It is as important to explain it correctly as remembering July 15,” he said.
