Turkish Military: We're Not Dead Yet
Never a dull moment in Turkey. The Sledgehammer trial began this week. Point to note, for those in a hurry: The chief judge was reassigned just two days before the trial began. Reassigned!
The Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors justified the move by pointing to Ministry of Justice allegations that the previous chief judge had ties to defendants in another politically sensitive trial, as well as connections to a drug ring and prostitution activities.
But the timing of the reassignment drew criticism from the defendants' lawyers -- one of whom noted that the case involves more than 100,000 pages of evidence, which the previous judge had been studying for four months.
Here's how the LA Times is billing it: TURKEY: Coup trial seen as vital to 'normalization' of military's relationship to government. That sound normal to you?
I say this drily, but I suppose the sad fact is that it is normal in Turkey. Such things happen all the time, and they certainly happened before the AKP came to power. The idea that this represents an advance for democracy and the rule of law is, however--how to put it?--peculiar.
Meanwhile, ten more sacks of supposedly damning documents have been seized from the Gölcük Naval Command, resulting in a classic Today's Zaman headline: Gölcük Naval Base revelations prove all shady plans interconnected. Interconnected how, you wonder? Well, you need a flow chart, really:
Police officers found a large number of CDs and documents labeled “confidential” under the floor of the intelligence department, which they placed in 10 separate bags and confiscated for examination. Sources said the CDs and documents will provide information for the prostitution investigation. ...
In August this year Seçen initiated an investigation into allegations of a prostitution ring inside the navy which, for the purposes of blackmail, had recorded compromising footage of senior bureaucrats, military personnel and police officers engaging in sexual acts with women. So far, 23 men -- most of them military officers on active duty -- have been arrested on charges of membership in a gang involved in blackmail and espionage. In addition, four Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) cryptology experts are facing charges of “obstructing strategic projects planned by the state and servicing confidential information to foreign centers.”
So, today's development: The generals have signaled that they are, as President Clinton might have it, still relevant:
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey's generals asserted their role as guardians of the secular Turkish state on Friday, a day after the trial began of nearly 200 officers accused of planning a coup seven years ago.
In a statement issued on the armed forces Website, the military's top brass vented its anger over the use of the Kurdish language in parliament this week.
But the timing and tone of its comments on constitutional duty will add to a sense of tension between the military and Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's government.
"The Turkish General Staff has always been and will continue to be party to the protection of the nation state, the unity and secularism of the state," the statement said.
Those words reflect the sensitivities of a military high command that has lost influence as Erdogan pushed democratic reforms aimed at making Turkey fit to join the European Union.
That last paragraph is of course so many kinds of debatable that it's just astonishing it could be printed like that--not even a nod to the idea that these reforms were aimed at getting rid of the military? But never mind that. The point is that the military is bristling.
And what's the main opposition CHP doing with itself? It's having a very big, noisy conference and committing suicide, basically.
Not sure who's going to come out on top here, but smart money isn't on "rule of law."
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Dec '10
Re: Turkish Military: We're Not Dead Yet
If the "secularism of the state" is one of the key missions of the military, and it "will continue" to fulfill that mission, then the AKP and the generals really do seem to be on course for a direct collision, and it seems that they really are colliding
Re: Turkish Military: We're Not Dead Yet
I think the point is that all concerned want an indirect collision. Everyone would prefer to achieve his goals by conspiracy, rather than outright confrontation.
Dec '10
Re: Turkish Military: We're Not Dead Yet
Claire Berlinski, Ed.
I think the point is that all concerned want an indirect collision. Everyone would prefer to achieve his goals by conspiracy, rather than outright confrontation. · Dec 18 at 6:17am
So there's a positive side to the famous Middle Eastern tendency to see a conspiracy in everything.
Re: Turkish Military: We're Not Dead Yet
In a fairly transparent way, this is a show trial. The evidence is largely trumped up, and the aim is to cow the secularist opposition entrenched in the civil service and the army. We are seeing in Turkey something like the salami tactics that the Russians employed after World War II in places like Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Poland. One does not have to be a blind, unabashed admirer of the Kemalist state to think that the substitution of an Islamist state will be anything but a disaster for the Turks and for their neighbors and historic allies. The statement by the General Staff is, I fear, vain boasting.
Jun '10
Re: Turkish Military: We're Not Dead Yet
Two idioms in celebration of the navy's historical relationship with dockside ladies:
Re: Turkish Military: We're Not Dead Yet
Who would know if it's trumped up? There's 100,000 pages of it and the prosecutors won't let anyone--including the defendants--see it! What we know about it we know from leaks. By the way, Alexander Christie-Miller is doing better reporting on this than most.
Nov '10
Re: Turkish Military: We're Not Dead Yet
Claire, I have heard that the Turkish military is very "tight" with the US military. Is that probable? If so, that would seem to give the generals a real advantage if push comes to shove. It would stiffen their resolve if they decided to openly oppose the civilian Islamists.
Certainly, America has nothing to gain if Turkey becomes an Islamofascist state. But, given Obama's very ambiguous stance on Islam, it is difficult to say which side the administration would back.
Re: Turkish Military: We're Not Dead Yet
Lady Kurobara: Claire, I have heard that the Turkish military is very "tight" with the US military. Is that probable? If so, that would seem to give the generals a real advantage if push comes to shove. It would stiffen their resolve if they decided to openly oppose the civilian Islamists.
Certainly, America has nothing to gain if Turkey becomes an Islamofascist state. But, given Obama's very ambiguous stance on Islam, it is difficult to say which side the administration would back. · Dec 18 at 9:45am
The side America should be on is the side of rule of law and full, representative democracy. Not generals and coups, not Islamists, not show trials--rule of law and democracy.
Re: Turkish Military: We're Not Dead Yet
I say "trumped up" because it has been reported that some of the evidence about what General Dogan was reportedly doing ca. 2003 or 2005 mentions things that did not exist until 2008.
America should no doubt be on the side of the rule of law and full representative democracy. But that option may not be on the table. In practice, the choice may be between the Islamists and the Kemalists. So the larger question may be which of the two is more likely to be a bridge to the rule of law and full representative democracy. In the past, when the Islamists really were in the fullest sense Islamists, I would have said that the Kemalists were the better choice. Over the last few years, I have been inclined to withhold judgment. But, as Erdogan's intentions become more clear, I fear that the only difference between his party and its predecessors is the pace of Islamicization. I wonder whether the old Kemalist military will not look very good in retrospect.
May '10
Re: Turkish Military: We're Not Dead Yet
Claire Berlinski, Ed.
Lady Kurobara: Certainly, America has nothing to gain if Turkey becomes an Islamofascist state. But, given Obama's very ambiguous stance on Islam, it is difficult to say which side the administration would back.
The side America should be on is the side of rule of law and full, representative democracy. Not generals and coups, not Islamists, not show trials--rule of law and democracy.
From what I've heard, one of the objectives of the military is to prevent the Islamists from seizing control of the government (it appears the military has been successful so far). Does this fact make the generals the exponents of the rule of law or are they guilty of misbehavior as well?
Re: Turkish Military: We're Not Dead Yet
Yes, absolutely. I've been in touch with General Cetin Dogan's son-in-law, Dani Rodrik, and he's sent me the longer versions of his analysis of the evidence (the leaked evidence)--it's shocking and from what I can see an absolutely brazen, clumsy fraud. But I haven't seen the prosecutors' full case; no one has. I'm going to be meeting him on Monday and I have quite a few questions for him about the documents he's been showing people.
To phrase the choice as "coups versus Islamists" ignores the fact that neither would be necessary if Turkey's institutions--the party political structure, the judiciary and the constitution in particular--were stronger. Right now you have two competing authoritarian camps, both of which view the law as a tool for acquiring power and the press as an organ of propaganda. Until attitudes toward these institutions change in a deep way, political stability here's a dream.