First Civilian as Head of National Security Council

The first civilian ever was named on Tuesday head of Turkey's influential National Security Council. It is a further step by Turkey to curb the power the armed forces has over the government. Louisa Schaefer about the links between politics and the military.

The new general secretary of the National Security Council is Mehmet Yigit Alpogan, who has until now served as the Turkish ambassador to Greece. But the Turkish Parliament already began passing a series of reforms last year to restrict the armed forces' influence.

Turkish military leaders have never considered themselves South American, coup-style generals. While they have overthrown the government three times in the republic's history – the last one in 1980 – it was never merely to exert their own will, they say.

On the contrary, most of the time they endeavoured to put the tedious business of daily politics back into civilian hands as soon as possible.

The military and Atatürk's legacy

The military elite always felt it was non-partisan and followed in the footsteps of Atatürk in keeping people on track in a country in constant danger, says army general Hilmi Özkök.

"No one can force us to be a political party. But the army WILL take sides when the republic's democracy, secular constitutional state, and the unity of the nation and its people are at stake."

One may then safely assume that the military has been the one who decided where and when the secular state and the unity of the people was in jeopardy and who was responsible for that.

Tanks against the Islamic Prime Minister

Communists were perceived as Turkey's main enemy during the Cold War; later, it was the Kurds and Islamists. In fact, it was just seven years ago that the army ordered tanks to roll to force Turkey's first Islamic head of government, Necmettin Erbakan, out of office.

Now it is his heir – Recep Tayyip Erdogan – who holds precisely that office. Prime Minister Erdogan is a former Islamist who has turned his back on his past and is now strongly pushing for Turkey to become a European Union member.

And he'll even play up to the military to get there.

"The Turkish army – the armed forces – are the starting point for Turkey becoming more modern and democratic," he declared openly.

Yet as much as Ergodan butters up the military, he also has helped to bring it to its knees. One year ago, Erdogan was able to disempower the military – at least on paper.

The National Security Council was turned into a purely advisory council, and the audit court now checks the army's books.

The European Union has been pressuring Turkey to stem the military's influence, and the move is one of the reforms necessary to become an EU member. The EU will decide in December whether or not it will open negotiations on Turkey's possible inclusion.

Louisa Schaefer

See also our dossier on Turkey and Europe