Tukey's Military Takes a Whack From the Gov't

Turkey's military has taken a serious thrubbing from the civilian leadership.

General Ilker Basbug, who is poised to step down on August 30th after two years as chief of the general staff, suffered the biggest loss of face. He wanted Hasan Igsiz, commander of the 1st army corps, to become land-forces commander. But Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, blocked the move. General Igsiz has been linked to bogus internet sites used to smear AK; their content was used as evidence when Turkey’s chief prosecutor sought to ban the party two years ago. The general has also been implicated in an alleged plot against adherents of the Fethullah Gulen movement, an Islamic fraternity that broadly supports AK.

The old guard lost out elsewhere. Eleven officers implicated in the so-called Sledgehammer case, an alleged coup plot, failed to win promotion. General Basbug’s attempts to have another ally become land-forces commander flopped. The only promotion that went as planned was that of General Isik Kosaner, a traditionalist who will succeed General Basbug.

AK supporters hail the outcome as a victory for democracy. “The government’s resolve”, says Mehmet Baransu, a journalist who exposed much of the army’s alleged mischief, “has weakened the coup-mongering corps.” Yet there is a whiff of horse-trading in the air. Mr Erdogan prevailed only after prosecutors decided, at the last minute, to revoke arrest warrants for 102 officers linked to Sledgehammer. Dani Rodrik, a respected economist whose father-in-law, Cetin Dogan, a retired general, is a top suspect in the Sledgehammer affair, thinks the prosecution was anyway deeply flawed.

Reducing the political influence of Turkey’s army, which has toppled four governments since 1960, is among the European Union’s hardest conditions for Turkey’s membership. A package of constitutional amendments that will further weaken the generals will be put to a referendum on September 12th. It includes a provision to allow coup-plotters to be tried by civilian rather than military courts, and a rule that says civilians can no longer be tried by the army, except in times of war.

By: Brant