The resignations suggest that some of the top commanders, who proved to be politically ineffective and failed to respond to the expectations of the Kemalists, wanted to preserve their dignity and honor. But obviously, they also wanted to make sure that the showdown would look like a political protest, which they did by resigning right before the meeting. However, the government has reacted intelligently and masterfully controlling the YAŞ situation without letting it amount to a crisis within a few hours on Friday, and properly identified the “character” of the new military hierarchy before the YAŞ meeting.
For the military, it is not easy to admit defeat against the politicians. As a privileged institution since the founding of the republican regime, the military has determined Turkey’s ideological orientation and the norms of political life making vital and decisive decisions on crucial matters and administering politics and society based on these decisions; naturally, this has made it arrogant. For many years, the military was kept away from public scrutiny and investigation because of the media’s stance and manipulation of society; the same media also presented the military servicemen as great heroes with no significant flaws. Owing to this, the military set up a world of privileges and nobody could object to its actions. Kemalism would live on forever and the military would continue to make decisions as to how the Turkish nation should think and live.
The first Justice and Development Party (AKP) term in office was nothing but a classical situation which demonstrated the necessity of the military to carry out a coup. However, its second term in office proved that staging a coup would not be so easy this time as the Ergenekon network’s murders and plans and how they overlapped with coup plots became exposed. On the other hand, unlike others in the past, the AKP government preferred to take care of the situation. In this way, an obvious confrontation took place between the government and the military. The people’s endorsement of the constitutional amendment package in the referendum and its extensive support for the AKP in the most recent election showed that the AKP’s third term in office would mean a defeat for the military.
Turkey is now witnessing the natural outcome of the social change that it has being going through over the last decade. People are no longer living under the brutality of ideological arrogance, and they are now confident enough to reject it. To put it simply, the majority of the country, including Islamic circles, perceives democracy as being something invaluable and precious. What the military did not understand was this change in the society. And for this reason, it thought the nation would remain a bystander in its struggle with the AKP because of the media’s support. But the media was not the old media either. The current Turkish media is diverse enough to make sure that manipulation attempts by different parties are swiftly exposed. But more importantly, the AKP is a party that is directly connected with the people and wins votes by making change. In other words, democracy is helping the AKP most of all; and the AKP is expanding its influence through democracy.
The military, because they were unable to understand the society they live in, did not understand that they were defeated until it was too late; yet, it is not appropriate to make harsh criticism of the military on this matter. One of the deputy chairs of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) attributed the commanders resigning to the government’s “illegal actions.” Another CHP deputy chair, in the meantime, filed a complaint against Ria Oomen-Ruijten with the EU, European Parliament and the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) over her remarks that Turkey was becoming a democratic country.
According to the CHP, democracy is declining in Turkey, the judiciary is becoming dependent on the government and the media is receiving extensive pressure from the political administration. Perhaps they think that this discourse will impress Western observers; but it is impossible that these statements will be taken seriously in Turkey. It is hard to tell whether the AKP is truly democrat; but it is clear that it is more democratic than the CHP and open to the social change. For this reason, the influence of those seeking to systematically manipulate like Soner Çağaptay from the Washington Institute is limited to their own world. Çağaptay has indicated that the Turkish military is being crushed under the political power of the AKP. However, the Turkish military is being crushed by Turkish society; and in this way, an obstacle that stands in the way of constructing democracy is being removed.
