On 8 July, Turkish President Abdullah Gul approved a law giving civilian courts the power to prosecute military personnel who might threaten national security. He insisted on the relevance of this legislation as an essential part in the EU membership talks. Indeed, together with other priorities, such as democracy, the rule of law and freedom of religion, the civilian oversight of the armed forces is one of the main and long-standing political criteria for Turkish EU membership: “Strengthen efforts to align civilian control of the military in line with the practice in EU Member States. Ensure that the military does not intervene in political issues and that civilian authorities fully exercise supervisory functions on security matters, including as regards the formulation of the national security strategy and its implementation […] limit the jurisdiction of military courts to military duties of military personnel.”(1)
In the 2008 Progress Report on Turkey, it was pointed out that no progress had been made on enhancing civilian control over the military. Moreover, the significant political influence by the armed forces was highly criticized: “[s]enior members of the armed forces have expressed their opinion on domestic and foreign policy issues going beyond their remit, including on Cyprus, the South East, secularism, political parties and other non-military developments.” (2)
However, the situation today is a bit different from last year and this new law might be considered as a step forward to EU membership. This legislation has been passed when fifty-six people, including two retired generals, journalists and academics, have gone on trial accused of being part of Ergenekon, the network who allegedly plotted attacks to provoke a military coup. (3) The law was proposed by the Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling AK Party, which has its roots in political Islam and was highly criticized by the secularist opposition Republican People’s Party who claimed that the law was against the Constitution itself.
The Turkish military is a long-established institution which has historically been considered as the guarantor of the secularism in a country mainly populated by Muslims. Since negotiations started on 3 October 2005, the civilian control of the military represents one of the short-term priorities for EU membership and its role has been increasingly debated and questioned. Since 2002, when the AK Party won the general elections and became the ruling party, this debate gained another dimension in the context of secularism. According to an article in The Economist, this tension between the military and the government may promote reforms and democracy. This new law is considered as one of the biggest challenge to the army’s immunity and to Turkey’s secular elite, the latest more worried about losing its power than Islamic influence by the government. (4)
It should be underlined that since the foundation of the Turkish Republic in 1923, the armed forces have overthrown several governments in the name of secularism. Therefore, this new law might be considered as a step forward to EU democratic standards to limit the power of the armed forces and reduce the “risk of coup d’états”. On the other hand, the fact that the military in Turkey has still popular support, and it is regarded as “one of the most reliable institutions of the Republic”, shows that this new law represents a symbolic and challenging step for Turkey.
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