"I was the mayor of Istanbul at the time of February 28. I was put in prison for reading a poem and my political career was under attack. Now I am serving as the first democratically elected president of Turkey. I serve my nation with pride, despite every move to obstruct. The coup is a crime against humanity. I lived through the February 28 coup. I am aware of February 28."
These are words spoken by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, recalls "Daily Sabah".
February 28, 1997 is a turning point in the history of Turkey.
On that day, the Turkish military, who considered even the slightest violation to be "legal" an attempt to undermine the country's security and secular state structure, dealt one of the worst blows Turkish democracy has ever suffered.
At the time, the Turkish government was composed of a coalition led by the Welfare Party (PB) of then-Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan, but the military feared the prime minister due to his party's conservative leanings, claiming that the alleged "Islamist" Welfare Party's program is problematic.
Erbakan's visit to Libya, his promotion of unity among members of the Development-8 (D-8) bloc, and his decision to host religious figures for the Ramadan iftar dinner were among the reasons that motivated the military to increase pressure on the leader, accusing the prime minister of engaging in "reactionary activities".
The military expressed its displeasure on February 4 by organizing a "military parade", including tanks, through the streets of Ankara's "Sinkan" district.
After the parade, then-Deputy Chief of General Staff Çevik Bir stated that the event was intended to "stabilize democracy".
On February 28, 1997 Turkey's National Security Council (MGK) held an emergency meeting that lasted almost nine hours, the longest meeting in the council's history.
The meeting produced the so-called "February 28 Memorandum", which lists decisions by the Turkish military in response to what it sees as "growing Islamist ideology".
The memorandum's main provisions were to close down the Islamic education-based "Imam Hatip" schools and to prevent religious activities under the pretext of separating religion from the state.
The biggest result of the legislation, however, is probably the ban on women wearing headscarves from entering all public buildings, including schools and universities. This ban has caused millions of young women to either drop out of their education or suffer while trying to get a proper education. Female teachers were also fired from their jobs if they refused to remove their headscarves, and the disgusting practice of "persuasion rooms" was introduced in universities, where students wearing headscarves were "persuaded" to remove their headscarves under threat of expulsion from school. Women wearing headscarves were also not allowed to work.
The military then forced Erbakan to sign a series of decrees, including the ban on headscarves, the closure of schools teaching the Koran, and measures aimed at giving the military control over independent media.
On June 18, 1997, the military went even further, forcing Erbakan's entire government to resign, leaving the prime ministership in the hands of Deputy Prime Minister Tansu Çiller. He is a leading member of the True Path of Turkey Party (DYP), which is part of the ruling coalition.
The then President Süleyman Demirel, who was prohibited by the laws of the time from having any political affiliation, later asked Mesut Yılmaz, leader of the right-wing liberal Homeland Party (ANAP), to form a new government.
During the so-called "postmodern" coup in Turkey, a new government was formed, taking over from Erbakan. The new government included the "Homeland", the Democratic Left Party (DSP) and the Democratic Party of Turkey (DTP).
The leader of the Democratic Left Party, Bülent Ecevit, became deputy prime minister in the new administration, which was then used to carry out the orders of the military.
Private schools and foundations allegedly affiliated with religious or conservative groups were closed, and Muslim believers were largely marginalized from public institutions - including government agencies, state universities, the civil service, the judiciary and the army.
Erbakan's Welfare Party was dissolved based on a decision by the Constitutional Court of Turkey, and several politicians - including Erbakan, Şevket Kazan, Ahmet Tekdal, Şevki Yılmaz, Hasan Hüseyin Ceylan and İbrahim Halil Çelik - were banned from participating in politics for five years.
One of the organizers of the February 28 coup, the then commander of the Turkish Land Forces, Hüseyin Küvrikoğlu, who later became the Chief of the Turkish General Staff, once said that "February 28 will last 1,000 years", but he was wrong in his prediction.
Only five years later, the Justice and Development Party (AKP), chaired by Erdogan, won the democratic elections and since 2002, the party has not lost an election. Since then, Erdogan’s party has implemented many reforms to prevent the military from interfering in Turkish democracy and politics.
As the military’s influence on the Turkish judiciary and politics was gradually removed, the perpetrators of the postmodern February 28 coup were brought to justice.
In a historic 2018 ruling, a Turkish court sentenced 21 high-ranking officials to life in prison for their role in the 1997 coup.
The officials include former military chief Ismail Hakki Karadayı; his deputy Cevik Bir; former First Army commander Cetin Dogan; former National Security Council secretary-general Ilhan Külıç; former gendarmerie commander Fevzi Türkeri; former commander of the ground forces Hikmet Köksal and former Secretary General of the General Staff Erol Özkasnak.
Sixty-eight other suspects in the case were acquitted.
The court accused Karaday and Bir of "organizing" the coup.
Many other participants in the coup avoided arrest due to advanced age or health problems, but were nevertheless prohibited from leaving the country.
The coup of February 28, however, has plunged Turkey into an economic crisis.
The banks that went bankrupt after February 28 led the country into a major crisis. The cost of this coup was 291 billion dollars, economists say.