July 15 marked the first anniversary of last year's botched military coup in Turkey. The date has been officially deemed “Day of Democracy and National Unity," and the celebration ceremonies and commemoration of the “martyrs” who lost their lives during the turmoil on that night and during the early hours of July 16 revealed deep divisions within Turkish society. Those splits and further polarization exposed on the first anniversary of the failed putsch were accentuated by the two articles published in the British daily The Guardian.
One was by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan titled “Turkey, a year after the attempted coup, is defending democratic values.”