Through a state of emergency decree issued\u00a0Jan. 10, the Turkish government transferred some critical powers of the chief of the General Staff to the civilian minister of defense.\u00a0Although the move passed without much debate, its importance cannot be disregarded. The\u00a0powers transferred constitute\u00a0the nerve endings of the military tutelage that ruled over Turkey for many years. The decree\u00a0concentrates military power in a single civilian\u00a0office.<\/p>\n
These radical moves, upending firmly established military structure and ideology, are not only in\u00a0response to the failed coup but are also designed to forgo the possibility of another\u00a0such attempt. The ruling AKP has been nibbling at the autonomous,\u00a0audit-free role of the military\u00a0since 2004.\u00a0This time the target is the command mechanism and the purpose is to\u00a0diffuse the concentration of military power and ensure civilian control of the army. This, however, is only one element of the AKP’s strategy, the other being the unprecedented purges.<\/p>\n
On Dec. 6\u00a0Defense\u00a0Minister Fikri Isik announced, \u201cUp to today 5,574 Turkish Armed Forces [TSK] personnel have been discharged and 989 have been suspended.\u201d The total has since risen\u00a0to 6,000 discharged. Since July 15,\u00a042% of admirals and generals have been discharged, decreasing their number from 358 to 206.\u00a0Some 16,000 military cadets have been dismissed from military schools.\u00a0The dismissal\u00a0of 248 pilots from the air force and the resulting personnel deficiency is but one example of how the military\u2019s missions are in peril.<\/p>\n
Turkey’s\u00a0military has sustained heavy blows to its image and reputation and\u00a0is now being punished.\u00a0Its traditional functions are being challenged.\u00a0When it comes to the political role of the TSK, the question that needs to be asked is did the traditional function of the armed forces \u2014\u00a0endowed through the legacy of an empire, a military republic and oversight of\u00a0the country’s\u00a0politics \u2014 end\u00a0with July 15?<\/p>\n
It may seem paradoxical to answer this question\u00a0with an outright yes\u00a0based solely on the\u00a0military’s current appearance\u00a0and perceived dynamics. Although the blow to the military\u00a0has been hard and deep, its tradition of interventionism is at least as strong and deep.\u00a0No one can deny that between the demilitarization process that began in 2003\u00a0and the measures adopted after July 15, civilian-military relations in Turkey are shifting to civilian values. This is, however, all relative.<\/p>\n
One has to remember that six months ago, a group in the military attempted a coup in a country\u00a0negotiating accession to the European Union. That group was not limited to officers affiliated with the US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen. There were other officers waiting in the wings. Many observers believe that had the Gulenist officers succeeded with their coup, many others would have joined them.<\/p>\n
Ilker Basbug,\u00a0retired chief of the general staff, has spoken of\u00a0three key groups in the military. On CNN Turk, he said,\u00a0\u201cThe key group that planned and commanded the July 15 uprising was the [Gulen]\u00a0movement. The second group is made up of those who did not carry out their assignments in it, those who hesitated. The third group, although they are not part of the [Gulen] movement, would have liked to have benefited from it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Retired military prosecutor\u00a0Ahmet Zeki Ucok, who first exposed the Gulenists in the army and who had issued warnings about a potential coup attempt, made an interesting and damning comment: \u201cIf they had captured the president on July 15, the command echelon would have legitimized the coup by declaring that it had been conducted by the chain of command.\u201d<\/p>\n
What risks should be of future concern? The first area is\u00a0political trends in the military today. What are the fault lines? If one takes into account the ability of the Gulenists to infiltrate the TSK and its clandestine structures, it would not be far-fetched to say that they remain the\u00a0major group in the TSK today. Ucok, in his recent book, claims that the Gulenists, with 50,000-60,000 adherents, constitute one-third of military personnel. Not to be forgotten are the 3,000 officers still under investigation and 20,000 people dismissed from the TSK and military academies who know how to handle a gun.<\/p>\n
The second group in the TSK is the one nearer to the Kemalist-nationalist line of thought. They emphasize restructuring the TSK, being alert to the Gulenist threat and struggling\u00a0against separatist pressures they see as\u00a0originating from the West,\u00a0especially the United States. In this regard, they are aligned with the AKP. They support the AKP on the Kurdish issue and\u00a0in dealing with the West, and also believe that Turkey is in the midst of a second independence war. They think\u00a0terrorist acts in Turkey are controlled by a single source (which they refer to as “the Mastermind”)\u00a0and that the United States was behind the July 15 coup attempt. For them, President Recep Tayyip\u00a0Erdogan represents the unity of the state and society.<\/p>\n
The third major group consists of the legalist officers who subscribe to the institutional role of the TSK. Although they are not politically active, they are most concerned about\u00a0the TSK and the country’s future.<\/p>\n
Naturally, where there are so many divergences and alliances, there will\u00a0be politics as well. Relations between these groups are\u00a0a serious risk element. All one has\u00a0to do is look\u00a0at the time before July 15 in recalling\u00a0the plots and\u00a0counterplots in the military that shook the institution to its roots.<\/p>\n
The second area of concern is the relationship\u00a0between conservative politicians and nationalist-Kemalist officers who are currently in what appears\u00a0to be a strong alliance that will determine the course of the country. Can they maintain their\u00a0alliance?<\/p>\n
Stability, a balanced and sustained foreign policy and an institutionalized democratic order may actually end the military\u2019s political function. If the opposite happens, however, with the gates that July 15\u00a0opened, the TSK\u2019s traditional instincts might create risks. Instability, polarization and foreign policy crises may well lead to domestic upheavals and provoke the military to try to resume its political role.\u00a0That could be fatal for Turkey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Through a state of emergency decree issued\u00a0Jan. 10, the Turkish government transferred some critical powers of the chief of the General Staff to the civilian minister of defense.\u00a0Although the move passed without much debate, its importance cannot be disregarded. The\u00a0powers transferred constitute\u00a0the nerve endings of the military tutelage that ruled over Turkey for many years. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":149,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5285],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jworldtimes.com\/old-site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7429"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jworldtimes.com\/old-site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jworldtimes.com\/old-site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jworldtimes.com\/old-site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/149"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jworldtimes.com\/old-site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jworldtimes.com\/old-site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7429\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jworldtimes.com\/old-site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jworldtimes.com\/old-site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jworldtimes.com\/old-site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}