The Turkish Military: Asset or Liability?

"With each passing day it becomes quite obvious that establishing a full-fledged democracy in Turkey requires a radical transformation of civilian-military relations." This was the opening sentence of my column on March 2. The reasons for full-fledged control of the military by civilians continue to be revealed.

Last Friday daily Taraf published a document prepared at the headquarters of the Turkish General Staff. The action plan talks of "planting weapons in some people's houses and then making it seem as if they belong to people from the Gülen movement, and then trying to paint them as terrorist organization; conspiring to provoke hatred amongst Sunnis and Alevis by fabricating anti-Alevi documents in Sunni households; fabricating information about the suspects in the Ergenekon trial and misleading the court; using controlled Islamists leaders to create a fabricated threat of Shariah; using media to discredit the Gülen movement and the [Justice and Development Party] AK Party; creating division inside the AK Party through agents planted inside the party; portraying the Gülen movement as in cooperation with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party [PKK], the CIA and MOSSAD; appearing on TV and radio and making false confessions about the Gülen movement," etc….

These plans cannot even be considered part of psychological warfare but are rather a straightforward map for criminal acts. At the very least they are attempts at manufacturing evidence, which is a crime in any decent country.

After the revelation of such a scandal, we can never be sure of the identities of the perpetuators of past events that shocked the nation. No provocative act in Turkey's past can be understood without taking into account those self-appointed people in the military.

A document that plans criminal activities is disclosed, and so far no explanation has been heard from the chief of general staff. In a normal democracy, following such a scandal those responsible resign, starting from the top.

Gen. Başbuğ should resign or be dismissed by the government. This is not a joke; at the heart of his headquarters, someone is conspiring criminal activities. This means that either he is not in control of his headquarters, or… I don't even want to think of "or."

Apart from all these criminal plans, those who prepared this document also suggest the creation of provocative news about Greece and Armenia in order to widen and strengthen the social support bases for nationalist parties. They are not only a threat to the Turkish people and democracy, but also constitute a formidable threat to regional and global peace. Imagine, at the very heart of the Turkish General Staff, the operations section, a document prepared by a senior officer plans to create crises with countries like Greece and Armenia in order to put the government under nationalist pressure and widen the social base of Turkish nationalism.

This indicates that the mindset in the military that can be discerned from this document is not only a problem for Turkey but also poses a threat to regional and global peace. What we have in the General Staff is a group of officers prepared to provoke interstate tension in order to influence and manage the domestic power game.

If the international community is interested in stability and peace in the region, it should support political reforms that would place the military under full civilian control. Turkey's friends abroad may be disinterested in all these criminal plots against the Turkish citizenry and government, but this group is determined to use every possible tool that would serve its own interests, including creating tension or waging war. I would not be surprised if one day they provoke an actual interstate war in order to realize their own power designs in Ankara.

In March I asked a question: Is democracy possible with this military? Today the answer is crystal clear to me: Democracy is not possible with an army that conspires not only against neighboring countries but also against its own people. The bad news, however, for perpetrators of such plots in Ankara, is that the people of this country are determined to establish democracy.