Turkey's parliament has amended an internal armed forces' regulation long relied on by the country's once-powerful generals as grounds for intervening in politics, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported Saturday, in a move that further strips the military of its political influence.
The military has wielded huge political power in the country, overthrowing four governments between 1960 and 1997 and issuing a warning against Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Islamic-rooted government as recently as 2007.
The generals have in the past pointed to an internal military regulation that stipulated the army's duty as watching over and protecting the Turkish republic, to justify army takeovers or stepping in whenever they felt uneasy over civilian leaders' policies.
In a midnight vote Friday, legislators voted to redefine the military's duty as: "defending the Turkish homeland against external threats and dangers, and maintaining and strengthening military powers to ensure deterrence."
They also emphasized the Turkish army's role in international peacekeeping missions, saying its tasks also included taking up any overseas duty assigned by parliament and helping secure international peace.
Erdogan's party proposed the amendment to strip the military of any legal basis for intervention in domestic affairs following a spate of anti-government protests in June, which the prime minister has blamed on a conspiracy against his democratically-elected government. The protesters were airing discontent with what opponents have said is Erdogan's increasingly authoritarian style of governing and moves to impose his conservative and religious views on society.
By: Brant
Posts
1 comment:
Ehh, if you are going to start a coup I am not sure having said coup "be against the regs" is really going to stop you. Plus, there have been 100 GOs locked up for over a year for planning one two years ago.
Post a Comment