Coup

Egypt's January 25 protests did not start as a revolution but as an angry popular movement against the practices of the Egyptian security agencies. These are the same masses that are claimed to have joined a new revolution: the June 30 Revolution.

This attempt aims to critique – critique here being a synonym for theory. Criticism is not based on what ought to be, but on what exists in the relationship between army and politics, not by describing it as wrong, or a symptom of the Arab affliction, but as the product of historical conditions, social and economic structures, and culture.

The Turks, a people who have long suffered from military rule, have only bitter memories of coups. In their political culture, the Turkish people consider military coups, regardless of the lure of their discourses and slogans, an assault on their will and right to choose their rulers.