Erdogan’s ‘Tank Man’ Spreads Turkey’s New Patriotism – Bloomberg
Metin Dogan lies in front of a tank at the entrance to Istanbul's Ataturk airport.
In a world where traders compete with computer programs that can place thousands of orders in the blink of an eye, Metin Dogans qualifications for teaching them about the process of rapid decision making are, on the face of it, few.
Dogan earns about 6,000 liras ($1,700) a month giving private math lessons, but he says hes not interested in economics. He doesnt own any stocks or bonds.His message that the pursuit of money amounts to a life wasted seems out of place atthe Istanbul stock exchange, where an audience of investors gathered May 26 to listen to the brawny 41-year-old speak.
The act thats made Dogan an authority on timely decisions, according to his hosts, was to throw himself under a rebel tank during last summers coup attempt, inspiring throngs of pro-government demonstrators who helped defeat it. In the nation thats been reforgedout of that struggle, those may be the only credentials he needs.
His hour-long talk was thin on investment advice, but these days success in Turkish business requires a skillset he has in spades. Loyalty isparamount: Purges since that nighthave reached into all parts of Turkish public life, ensnared more than 100,000 state-employed workers, seen parliamentarians jailed on terror charges, and driventheir free colleagues to brandish ballot papers in ostensibly secret votes.
Private industry hasnt been immune either. The seizure of companies whose owners are deemed sympathetic to the oppositionhas silenced dissent among those who remain, and inspired lurid acts of devotion from would-be oligarchs vying to buy seized businesses on the cheap.
The building where Dogan deliveredhis talk bears witness to such power struggles. TheBorsa Istanbul fired 120 staff members thought to favor the putschistsafter three people were gunned down here on thatfateful night lastJuly.While its often forgotten that the purge of PresidentRecep Tayyip Erdogans enemies was acceleratedbut not triggeredby the failed coup, its harder to overlook that here.Dogans host,Himmet Karadag, is chairman of an exchangethats seen four CEOs in just over twoyears.
Dogan says he didnt take on the tank in pursuit offame, though hes gotten plenty of that. When he set out July 15 to confront the soldiers encircling Istanbul airport in theirbotched attempt to overthrow Erdogan, he says he was going there to die. He wasnt intending to reenact a more famous tank standoff, though what eventually happened certainly evoked that famous picture.
It came to me that if people saw someone getting crushed under a tank, theyd realize the situation wasnt a joke and theyd spill out on the streets, he said at the exchange. If our people didnt come out into the streets quickly, then the other half of society would have and then it would be too late.
Soldiers involved in the coup attempt surrender on the Bosporus bridge in Istanbul, on July 16, 2016.
Photographer: Stringer/Getty Images
By dawn the next day, thousands had followed Dogan into the fray. Since then, he says he hasnt had a day off. His schedule is packed with speaking engagements, including 50 schools and 30 universities so far. He says he tries to instill in young people a love of god and country. At the stock exchange, the packed auditorium hangs on every word, rapt by a tale of accidental heroism that made the former nightclub bouncer a star.
People were in shock, Dogan says of the first fewuncertain hours of the coup attempt, when his compatriots were glued to TVs trying to make sense of the standoff between military and police, and Dogan was racing toward the action on a motorbike.There had to be a way to snap them out of it, he says.
There ought to be very little difference between my truth and yours.
Dogan says hes not a member of the ruling AK Party, currently led by Erdogan, its founder. He says he doesnt watch the news orread newspapers, and contends hes never registered to vote before Aprils constitutionalreferendum (which in a country with compulsory participationputs him in a minority).Though hes now met the prime minister, Dogansays he isnt sure he could have identified BinaliYildirim before invitations from government ministries started rolling in.
Knowing who Yildirim is has become less important since the referendum. Dogan says he was part of the51 percent majority who endorsedconstitutional changes that will abolish the prime ministers job, concentrating even greater power in Erdogans hands. Meanwhile, the failed coup has become a curriculum item, with first-year pupils dressing up as putschists and martyrsin childrens day ceremonies across the country.
Dogans professed disregard for politicsmakes hima draw forofficialstrying to present the presidents vision as something beyond party-political concerns. Quizzed in an interview about the lessons investors should draw from Dogans talk, Karadag, the Borsachairman, lamented that in Turkey, politics often getsmixed in unnecessarily.
There ought to be very little difference between my truth and yours, he said.
I realized then that maybe God wanted me to speak.
Dogan was on a bus returning from the gym when he got his first inkling of thecoup attempt, he says. He was appalled to hear fellow passengers unanimously celebrating. Thank goodness! he remembers hearing someone say. Another exclaimedJust in time,he says.
In his determination to get to the scene before the other half took to the streets, Dogan touches on the theatrics of the occasion. He says he saw how anti-government protesters were tricked into coming out during the Gezi Park protests in 2013, and if the same crowd got out first this time, it would be too late. It was important to be seen to lie down in front of a tank, rather than go the more obvious route of smashing a soldiers face in, he says, otherwise the wrong sort of people could have been provoked onto the streets.
Once in place, I left my head a little bit to the side so it would squash my heart and kill me quickly, he said.The only time Dogan says he felt fear was when the standoff ended, and he instinctively lit a cigarettein full view of CCTV cameras. His 77-year old mother doesn't know he smokes.
Coups are, according toEdward Luttwak, the author of Coup dEtat: A Practical Handbook, consummately about theater. But there are those who take this notion too far, claiming the latest one in Turkey was staged, Dogan tells the crowd at the stock exchange.
Soldiers accused of being involved in the attempted coup as they arrive at acourthouse inside Sincan Prison in Ankara on May 22.
Photographer: DemAltan/AFP via Getty Images
Dogans audience may have recalled that the head of research for one of Turkeys largest brokerageswas avictim of that phenomenon.Some speculate that it was a false-flagevent stage-managed to give Erdogan an opportunity to purge the military of opponents, the analyst wrote in a note to clients three days after the revolt, before dismissing the theory as far-fetched.
He was debarred from the profession and criminally charged.
You know how some people say it was a plot? Dogan asks the crowd. Its because those people have neither the brain nor the heart to understand how two million people could have gone out in response to Erdogans request, out of love, to die.
Erdogans request that night was broadcast via FaceTime from the presidentialjet. I invite our people into the squares,he said from a 4.7-inch screen, propped up in a news anchors hand. Although Dogan only watched when he was safely home the next day, the newsthat Erdogan wasalive turned the tide. By morning, most members of the armys rebel faction who hadnt been killed or fled had been rounded up.
Dogan says he shunned publicity when his pictures first started making the rounds. Some friends recognized that he was the man in the picture blanketing Twitter timelines, but he said nothing. The day after the coup failed, a Moroccan man with a shiny bald head like his own gave interviews claiming to be the tank man. Still he said nothing. Then he says he learned that the tanks commander had threatened to kill a subordinate when the younger soldier hitthe brakes.
I realized then that maybe God wanted me to speak, Dogan says.
Children need to learn to give their lives for their country without question.
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He muses whether he survivedbecause his life has been spent looking out for the little guy. Dogans account of his personal history is littered with tales of fighting injustice. One kid stole anothers eraser in primary school, so he beat the thief. A policeman manhandled a young girl at a protest he organized, so he beat the officer. As a bouncer in the nightlife district of Taksim, he explains, there was so much injustice to contend with that the streets were covered either my blood or blood thatIdspilled.
Dogan says he loves Erdogan because he stands up to injustice, just like him.Despots breed of our fear, Dogan tells the stock exchange crowd, alluding to enemies of his president. Ifrather than shrinking awaywe stand up to them, well see that theyre the pathetic ones.
Dogan says hell continue to travel throughout Turkey to give speeches, focusing on youth education. Children need to learn to give their lives for their country without question, Dogansays. We need heroes.
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Erdogan's 'Tank Man' Spreads Turkey's New Patriotism - Bloomberg