Turkey: The Military, a Pillar of the Secular Tradition, Finds Itself on the Defensive

Turkey's military, long seen as the country's most trusted institution and as the ultimate defender of the state, is suddenly facing fire from an unlikely source: the public.

The military's image crisis is coinciding with a high-profile trial, in which a group of nationalist-secularist conspirators are accused of plotting the overthrow of the country's moderate Islamist government. The trial of the so-called Ergenekon conspirators resumed October 23. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. Some experts see the twin developments as a sign of a major shift in Turkey's political tradition.

The trouble for the military began October 3, when an attack by guerillas from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) on a border outpost left 17 Turkish soldiers dead. Since then, the army has been facing an unprecedented level of criticism, accused of negligence in the death of the soldiers and ineptitude in its ongoing fight against the PKK.

The military's image took a further blow when Turkish newspapers widely circulated a picture of the country's top air force general on vacation playing golf the day after the bloody attack, seemingly oblivious to what had happened. "Resign, My Pasha," was the front-page headline in popular Vatan newspaper, using the Ottoman term for military generals. In a country where the military and its exploits are almost worshipped, this kind of open criticism of a general was a first.

"This can be described as a kind of turning point, in the sense that it's the first time some of the media have questioned mistakes made by the military in the fight against the PKK," says Lale Sariibrahimoglu, a military analyst based in Ankara.

"Up until now, it has been very hard to question the military's actions and mistakes in the fight against the PKK."

Observers here say that this harsh criticism is an indication of the continuing dilution of the Turkish military's formidable political power and an important step towards strengthening Turkey's still struggling democratization process and perhaps towards developing new, civilian-led, strategies in dealing with the Kurdish problem.

The Turkish military certainly appears to be standing on unfamiliar ground. For decades, the army has been Turkey's dominant political force, seen as the ultimate protector of the country's political stability and of its secular system of government. Since 1960, Turkey's generals have pushed four governments out of office.

"They have meddled a lot in domestic politics," says Volkan Aytar, a researcher on military affairs at the Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV), an Istanbul-based think tank.

"The military has been a brake mechanism of sorts on Turkey's democratization process," he adds. "Whenever there has been a democratic reform on the agenda, they [generals] have claimed it was going to impact the military's ability."

Reforms introduced in the last decade as part of Turkey's bid to join the European Union have helped weaken the military's influence in politics, providing for more civilian involvement in security issues and for increased parliamentary oversight of the army's budget.

This seems to have emboldened the press to scrutinize military conduct. One newspaper, Taraf, accused the army of failing to act on intelligence that the recent PKK attack was in the works, even running on its front page classified aerial pictures taken by an unmanned military aircraft that seemed to show the PKK's guerillas preparing for their raid.

"We can say that we are passing to a new phase in Turkish civilian-military relationship," says Mehmet Ali Birand, a political analyst with the Kanal D television network.

"The press used to be afraid of criticizing the military, it was very careful not to do that. Now it's just the contrary. We've never seen criticism like this before."

"It's a new era," he adds.

Still, the generals don't appear to be backing off from the media's attacks. In a tense press conference, Ilker Basbug, Turkey's top general, said the military would take legal action against anyone leaking material to the press about the recent PKK attack. "This is my last word: I invite everyone to be careful and to stand in the right position," a visibly angry Basbug, flanked by his top generals, said. "The systematic attacks that have increased in recent days would do nothing but increase the strength, determination and will of the Turkish Armed Forces."

TESEV's Aytar says the military's threats may carry less weight these days than they used to. "The army's efforts to counter all this criticism, saying it's just an effort to weaken the military, don't fly anymore. It doesn't strike a chord with the public," he said.

"I think the Turkish public is now seeing more that this meddling in domestic politics, even in the tiniest details, has been hurting the military's ability to do its important job in defending the border against PKK attacks."

Experts also believe that public debate on the military's record could have beneficial results, helping Turkey to find a new way of resolving the country's decades-old fight with the PKK. "It's a good start on the PKK issue," says Sariibrahimoglu. "It could force the political authorities to curb the military's political involvement in the Kurdish issue and allow for more political solutions to come up."

Says Hugh Pope, Turkey analyst with the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based policy and advocacy organization: "The cliché of Turkey run by militaristic generals, which was the image of Turkey for a long time, is no longer valid."

"It creates opening for new kinds of thinking. The whole narrative of an easy military solution for PKK is now discredited," he said.