Could there be a coup without popular support?

A full-fledged military coup has taken place in Egypt. The president, elected in the first transparent, free election in Egyptian history, open to the participation of the entire people, was removed from office by the military before even a year had passed. Neither the constitution nor the internal service law of the Egyptian armed forces gives the military the authority to remove an elected president, but the military derived this authority from the demands of the crowds gathered in Tahrir Square.

The crowds gathered in Tahrir Square were acting on the grounds that, in the time that had passed (six, seven months, or a year?), the President, whom a large segment of the people had voted into office months earlier, had failed to solve their problems. The military said that the demands of the people who gathered in Tahrir on this ground should be seen and met by Morsi. Yet the Egyptian people did not consist only of those gathered in Tahrir, and in democracies there was a way called the ballot box for evaluating what a president elected for four years had and had not done in such a short time, and that too had its time.

The coup put such a full stop to what has happened since 25 January that it also made it possible to understand much better, looking back from this point, what has happened up to now. We had in fact guessed that, on the road Egypt traveled in its transition to democracy since the fall of Mubarak, it could not have been left to itself. It was also known that the resistance shown on this road by Egypt's military, administrative and judicial bureaucracy would not be enough to stop this historical course. It was almost certain that at some stage Satan would return to the stage with all his might to prevent this magnificent revolution. Yet the 30 June coup showed that this evil had set out from the very beginning on its own great precaution and trap and had not been idle. Indeed, the people's going out to Tahrir had been arranged entirely long beforehand in order to issue the army the invitation needed for the coup.

In the end, there is no point from now on in measuring and evaluating what Morsi did right or wrong at the beginning and how much. The intention was determined long ago. In essence, no criticism directed at Morsi on account of this coup can escape being a partner in the evil of the coup.

When the coup being a coup is this obvious, how should we interpret the instructive confusion shown by Westerners, who leave no stone unturned on democracy? The European Parliament did not even call the coup a coup. It assessed the military coup, which started by closing 7 television channels and arresting nearly 400 members of the Freedom and Justice Party and filled the streets with tanks, as the Egyptian people's deciding on early elections. We will of course note how comfortably they uttered the statement, "The removal of an elected president is not pleasant, but he too failed to meet the expectations of the Egyptian people." Thus, strangely, we have learned that within the EU acquis it is possible for a government that cannot meet the people's demands to be sent away by a military coup. But was everything you have told us until now nothing but a fairy tale?

One argument put forward for not calling the coup in Egypt a coup is that the people celebrated it with fireworks and therefore it has the people's support.

In fact, which coup that took place without the people's support can those who say this point to so far? Isn't our tradition of coups instructive enough on this? None of the coups in our country acted without being convinced that they had sufficient support among the people. But their having been carried out by taking refuge in the justification "the people want it" does not change the truth that coups are an immoral usurpation of authority, an evil, a betrayal of a trust, the most shameful crime, and cannot prevent them from being condemned in the end before justice and conscience.

THE GAME STAGED IN THE STOLEN TAHRIR IS BEING SPOILED BY RABIA AL-ADAWIYA

The crowd in Tahrir Square, and the fireworks welcome given to the coup by this crowd, did not of course change the fact that it was a coup. However, it must be acknowledged that preparing such a welcome for a coup should count as an innovation and an originality in the history of coups. Until now no coup had tried to dress itself up so shamelessly. The "Turkish model," so often discussed in the days of the Arab Spring, seems in this event to have been far surpassed, but with entirely negative experiences.

The model displayed in deep state games and coup techniques has reached the stage of being able to constitute a model for Turkey's coup-makers as well. Although the Taksim protesters tried to steal a role from Tahrir from the start, Tahrir, with its liberating role in the process leading up to 25 January, was far from being an example for Taksim. Yet now this model has fully fallen into place. Tahrir, with its liberating character, has today been stolen by the Mubarak regime taken out of the recycle bin, and has become the stage of the great intrigue that derailed the Revolution and returned all of society's gains to the oligarchs of the old regime.

On the other hand, there were also millions of other people gathered at the same time both in Rabia al-Adawiya Square and in Egypt's other cities, and with this stand they defied the coup. These squares, which the international media in particular tried to ignore, reached dimensions the next day that could no longer be met with indifference. This unexpected resistance, definitely far larger than the crowds in Tahrir and spread over the whole of Egypt, changed the entire color of the matter and also shed light on the position of all parties to the process. The Brotherhood, which declared it would not recognize the coup and went into resistance, has in essence already spoiled the game set up in Tahrir.

In the square where this resistance is displayed, millions were crying out that even if Tahrir is stolen, the spirit of freedom cannot be stolen.

That the Spirit of Tahrir has today found its expression again in Rabia al-Adawiya Square, in the name of that blessed woman, must be the most striking aspect of the Tahrir message against these coup days.