During the ceremony the old and new chiefs of General Staff delivered long speeches on a wide range of issues, most of which do not fall in their domain, leading many to reflect on these speeches as well as the performance of the outgoing military chief.Zaman’s Mustafa Ünal, who assesses Başbuğ’s two-year tenure as chief of General Staff, does not draw a bright picture of his performance and says that although he had pledged to become a military chief that would speak less, he became one of the most outspoken commanders. “While assuming his job two years ago, Başbuğ started off well, saying that he would ‘speak less’ and gave the impression that he is an ‘intellectual commander’ with references he made to philosophers. His mention of philosophers such as Samuel Huntington and Baron de Montesquieu had made me hopeful about him, as it did everyone else. Democracy, freedoms and civilian-military relations could reach the level of values in Montesquieu’s country [France] during his term. Hopes faded away quickly. His intellectual side disappeared quickly,” Ünal explains. In his view, Başbuğ’s biggest shortcoming was his failure to distance himself from the perpetrators of coup plans within the TSK and preventing the judiciary from shedding light on such plans. “Two years are over. With his statements and actions, Başbuğ exhausted both the TSK and himself,” Ünal says.
Yeni Şafak’s Fehmi Koru regrets that this year’s handover ceremonies at the TSK were unfortunately not like such ceremonies in countries Turkey is trying to emulate in that the generals made long speeches that were full of messages. From these speeches, Koru concludes that Turkey’s generals have a tendency to read the change in Turkey that occurs parallel to the change in the world as a threat, which he finds wrong. “Would they not have displayed a better attitude if they had noticed the change before and tried to make use of it in favor of their country’s interests?” he asks.
Milliyet’s Hasan Cemal also feels very pessimistic about the speeches made by the generals during Friday’s handover ceremony and thinks Turkey’s job is very difficult with a mentality like that of the generals, one very closed to change. He suggests that civilians who are administering this country should think about the situation in which Turkey’s senior commanders have an outdated approach to Turkey’s most crucial problems.
