BY ALI BAYRAMOGLU
YENI SAFAK- Columnist Ali Bayramoglu comments on the Turkish military’s role in politics. A summary of his column is as follows:
Yesterday the European Parliament approved a report on Turkey which will surely have considerable influence on the country’s future path to European Union accession. The report opened a new chapter in Turkish-EU relations and the country’s pledge to pass necessary reforms for membership in the Union. And we once again witnessed that the bulk of the issue, for the EU, too, lies in Turkey’s worst chronic problem: The ‘military’s guardianship’ over our nation’s democracy, political parties and political life.
It is quite natural for the EU to voice such considerations as Turkey draws closer to the Union threshold, and time runs out for us to comply with its criteria. Nevertheless, this report constituted a first. The EU has so far refrained from addressing the military issue head-on out of awareness of Turkey’s sensitivities on the matter. But as we see now, the military guardianship issue has effectively become a part of the criteria and the EU’s agenda with Turkey.
Here’s what the report said:
The country’s military establishment has an overwhelming influence over the state and society, and it constitutes a barrier to Turkey’s future progress in strengthening its democratic, pluralist system. 3. The National Security Council (NSC) must be abolished in the long term, or its structure and function in the state mechanism must be changed. Military representatives must withdraw from institutions such as the Higher Board of Education (YOK) and the Supreme Board of Radio and Television (RTUK) in order to provide them with real autonomy.
Moreover, it is very likely that the EU will later raise such issues as the status of the General Staff and military expenditures and decisions.
We have been discussing the military issue in Turkey for many years now. Significant intellectual and political struggles to eliminate the military guardianship over the country’s civilian politics have their roots in rejection of the military influence. As a matter of fact, no democratic standard, including the EU criteria, can co-exist with the military guardianship mentality. It is clear that there is a negative correlation between this mentality, rationalized by a ‘national security’ discourse, and a country’s level of plurality and maturity of political culture. For years, the architects of this mentality have tried to affirm and legitimize the institutions and practices of the military guardianship by directly citing the country’s ‘special conditions.’
We are at a point now where we either have to recognize that these ‘special conditions’ are actually imaginary ones which have pushed Turkey off the democratic path or we will turn them into real ones, which, in the end, would result in further deterioration of our democracy.
It is much clearer now why the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) had certain anxieties about the European Union. Future EU harmonization packages set to follow the current one are likely to give raise to much more heated debates and sharp conflicts, should they propose further reforms on the issue.”
SOURCE: OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER, DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF PRESS AND INFORMATION