The nature of a debate a ruling party deputy triggered soon after the December disclosure of a high-profile corruption scandal that hit Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's inner circle is such that it will leave the Turkish military the only winner in Turkey's current turmoil.
Yalçın Akdoğan, an Erdoğan adviser and deputy from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), claimed that the Hizmet movement headed by Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen had framed hundreds of military officers who were convicted last year of plotting to unseat the government.
Hence, Akdoğan accused the Hizmet movement of orchestrating a plot that paved the way for the military officers' convictions. With his remarks, however, Akdoğan made a big U-turn from his government's earlier position of supporting the trials of hundreds of officers convicted on charges of plotting coups in violation of the Constitution.
Akdoğan's rather provocative remarks are part of the government's ongoing campaign to defame the Hizmet movement, with which it openly broke its longtime alliance after the graft probe was made public on Dec. 17 of last year.
Hence, the campaign is intended to hush up the corruption and bribery scandal by, among other things, purging over 3,000 police officers as well as over 100 judges, who were reassigned to new posts and accused of being Gülenists.
Before the corruption and bribery investigation was sabotaged, however, two ministers were forced to resign and another was sacked after the sons of two ministers together with about 24 others were arrested.
The government's tactic of reaching out to the same generals whose political power it once sought to curb in order to foil the graft probe has, unfortunately, served its purpose. After Akdoğan claimed the Hizmet movement had staged a plot that culminated with the convictions of many retired and active-duty officers, Erdoğan gave the green light for the retrial of coup convicts and there have been efforts to find a formula to go ahead with the retrials.
The General Staff followed up on the government's move by filing a complaint with the Ankara Public Prosecutor's Office on Jan. 2. The complaint alleged that law enforcement units, judges and prosecutors who participated in the Ergenekon and Balyoz (Sledgehammer) coup trials ignored the pleas of the defense and manipulated the evidence incriminating the officers.
How should we then read the government's making an alliance with the military at the expense of the democratic gains achieved during the AK Party's 11-year rule?
In the following analysis published in the Greek magazine The TOC on Jan. 31, Professor Ümit Cizre provides valuable insight into the government's big U-turn from democratization:
“… Erdoğan's reaction also included pushing for a review of the trials of hundreds of military officers, including former force commanders and one former chief of general staff previously convicted for coup planning against the government. Their arrests and trials had created an unprecedented opportunity for the government to radically if not definitively reset the lopsided balance between civil and military authorities in Turkey in favor of constitutionally elected organs. Erdoğan's search for a de facto alliance with the army against the Gülen movement now seems to represent a huge embarrassment for his so-called ‘democratization' route.”The AK Party's policy of appeasing the military, meanwhile, will make the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) the only winner in the turmoil that erupted with the government's attempts to block the graft probe.
This is because the AK Party, due it its mishandling of the graft probe, will be weak even if it wins the local elections to take place in March of this year and the national elections in 2015; hence, it will be even less enthusiastic in pushing for military reforms.
Therefore, under a weaker AK Party government, the military will ensure that its interests -- i.e., its existing privileges, including businesses run by the Turkish Armed Forces Assistance Center (OYAK) -- are protected.
If, let's say, the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) or far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) comes to power in the 2015 general elections, the military's interests will be protected. Having one of these parties in power would mean a reset (i.e., the military would return to its previous practice of meddling in politics when it deems necessary) because neither party's democratic credentials are strong enough to bring the military under civilian control.
Whether the AK Party remains in power or another party wins the next elections, the military will be in a win-win situation, able to secure its privileged status.
Turkey, however, will pay a price for having forged an alliance with the military and keeping it quiet by, for instance, signing off on all the military's arms purchase requests, whether necessary or not, without requiring any democratic oversight. The cost of keeping the military quiet was high to begin with. And the AK Party's appeasement policy will make keeping the military quiet much more expensive.
Published on Today's Zaman, 03 February 2014, Monday
