Mangal, located in the north London neighbourhood of Dalston, is one of the capital’s most popular Turkish kebab shops with nearly 20 years’ history; a frequent haunt of artists Gilbert & George and endorsed by the likes of Jamie Oliver and Yotam Ottolenghi.
This weekend, as turbulent events unfolded in Turkey following a failed military coup, the attention of its owners – like that of most Turkish diaspora living in the UK – was shifted towards their homeland. The restaurant’s co-owner, an avid Twitter user famous for his sarcasm, started live-tweeting the coup attempt on the restaurant’s account, which has more than 25,000 followers.
“The biggest problem in Turkish politics is that there’s isn’t a popular enough/charismatic leader to challenge Erdoğan. Just a reckless army,” he said in one of his first string of tweets late on Friday as news of the coup broke. “This coup is a bad, bad idea. As if Erdoğan is just going to resign after this. He’ll fight smoke with fire. Repercussions will be brutal,” he said in another message that day.
On Monday, the man behind these series of tweets, who preferred to remain anonymous, told the Guardian that the events ensuing in Turkey were embarrassing. “It’s certainly a step backwards, one of many,” he said. “I believe this ‘coup’ to be quite dubious. The more arrests that occur, the more I’m led to believe it was staged.”
The co-owner said he blamed the turmoil both on the Justice and Development party (known as AKP), which is in power, and secular Turks who have failed to come up with a candidate who could challenge Erdoğan for his “authoritative, backwards, divisive governance”.
“I side with neither the military nor Erdoğan. The military, if a real coup had been attempted and successful, would kill many Kurds, who are fighting Isis,” he said.
Erdoğan’s attempts, in what he described as rewriting the constitution in the aftermath of the failed coup, is as “undemocratic” as the attempted coup itself. “I’m very worried for secular Turks and Kurds,” he said. “AKP supporters, on the other hand, have never had it so easy. It’s a good time to be a conservative Muslim in Turkey. For everybody else, it’s pure hell.”
Cynicism runs high in Green Lanes, at the heart of London’s Turkish community. Ali Emin, a 31-year-old sales person, said many members of the Turkish diaspora believe the coup was planned by Erdoğan himself but blame the US for its roots.
“What happened in Turkey is the same as what happened in other places like Egypt and Syria, they want Turkey to be at war, they want Turkey to become like Syria and people blame the US for that,” he said.
Emin, howevever, said he preferred Erdoğan to a military takeover. “At the end of the day, people chose him, he was the president and you have to respect that, that’s how the democracy works,” he said.
Murat Demir, 29, who works at a furniture shop in Green Lanes, said a great deal of people in Turkey are scared to voice criticism in public. “A lot of people defending Erdoğan are using this as an excuse to attack minorities,” he said.
He expressed particular concern at proposals in Turkey to reintroduce death penalty. “We haven’t seen the death penalty for a very long time,” he said. “If they bring back the death penalty, I fear there will be a civil war within Turkey.”
Hassan, who was born in the UK, has Kurdish family in Gaziantep, in Turkey’s southeastern Anatolia region. He blames Erdoğan for the turmoil.
“It’s appalling,” he said. “Erdoğan doesn’t want equality. The country doesn’t have a say, it’s all about him. It’s 2016 and he wants to take Turkey back, like when segregation existed in America. He wants to segregate Turks from Kurds.”
Another Kurdish citizen of Turkey now living in London said he feared that Erdoğan would want to bring Islamic Sharia law back to his homeland. “He planned the coup from the beginning, just look at him now being nice to Russia and Israel and saying sorry to Assad. This is why it’s planned.”
Khan, a graphic designer in Green Lanes who only gave his first name, said the failed coup marked the downfall of Turkey. “It was planned,” he insisted. “It’s a kid’s story, no one believe him. It was a staged coup or at least provoked by him,” he said. “There’s a 50-50 divide between Turkish people.” He added: “I don’t like either, not Erdoğan, nor the coup plotters. They’re in struggle for more power, they’re fighting for power.”
Burcu Incekara, a 37-year-old shopkeeper said politicians are all the same. “It’s like a birthday cake, different political parties are different slices, but it’s the same cake, same taste,” she said. “I feel sad about the coup because in Turkey, people should respect democracy. We normally don’t have war in Turkey but now I’m really worried. We are living a short life, we’ve had enough.”
