Since the disclosure of a coup plot code-named Sledgehammer by the Taraf daily in mid-January, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) has signaled its desire to change laws in order to narrow the military’s room for maneuver in politics, thus curbing its persistent appetite for coups.
There is an ongoing trial of about 200 people, including retired generals, academics, journalists and a political party leader, charged with crimes including an attempted coup in the Ergenekon case. A new indictment named Poyrazköy was accepted by an İstanbul court last week as part of the ongoing Ergenekon investigation, charging several naval officers, including an admiral, with involvement in a coup plot. In addition, secret documents from coup plots, which are under judicial examination, continue to be disclosed by Turkey’s liberal Taraf daily.
As the danger of a coup looms over the horizon, the government has decided to bring down from the dusty shelves its bill on the Court of Auditors, which has been awaiting approval by Parliament for almost four years. The bill is expected to be debated at a commission in Parliament soon before being brought to the floor for approval. The Court of Auditors Law will not only pave the way for all civilian institutions to be audited in line with international standards of transparency and accountability but will also enable the auditing of the military budget as well as extra-budgetary funds earmarked for defense.
The European Union’s Oct. 14, 2009 Turkey progress report stated that the implementation of the Public Financial Management and Control (PFMC) Law remains a cause for concern. “Establishment of an effective and operational internal audit system, in the form of autonomous units within all state institutions, remained incomplete. In this context, strategy development units, which are pillars of financial management and policy-making, need to be strengthened.”
The Court of Auditors Law is expected to complete an operational internal audit system.
Currently, the Court of Auditors can carry out external ex-post audits of military expenditure. “However, these audits are based on accounting records and take the form of desk reviews. Moreover, the court remains unable to audit movable assets belonging to the military, pending adoption of the draft Law on the Court of Auditors,” the EU report said.
Lifting a controversial secret protocol named EMASYA (the Protocol on Cooperation for Security and Public Order), signed by the Turkish General Staff and the Interior Ministry in 1997, is another area that has finally been brought to the agenda.
The government has long been urged to cancel the protocol, which allows military personnel to come to the aid of police during mass demonstrations without the prior permission of governors. The protocol puts military commanders in charge of curbing violence, and it has been described as a de facto state of emergency. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan stated during a TV program last Sunday that such a protocol cannot exist and that it will be lifted soon.
The architect of the alleged Sledgehammer coup plot, retired Gen. Çetin Doğan, former head of the 1st Army Command, told the media recently that the war scenario drafted during his commandership was prepared as part of the EMASYA protocol. However, he denied that it was a coup plan.
Erdoğan said the National Security Policy Paper will also be changed, ending internal threat perceptions. This paper has long been controversial since it was prepared by the military targeting citizens as a threat -- another example of the Turkish Armed Forces’ (TSK) interference in politics.
A small but symbolic step that marks a change in the civilian-military relations equation in favor of the former was taken last week when it was decided that the police and not soldiers will execute the night watch at the entrance to Parliament. There is still, however, a military headquarters adjacent to the Parliament building, which deputies earlier urged to be moved. This request was met at the time with severe criticism from the TSK.
However, the ruling AK Party will not take radical steps in the near future, such as lifting Article 35 of the Internal Service Code, which was accepted after the 1960 coup and gives the TSK the duty of protecting and watching over the Turkish homeland and the Republic of Turkey as defined by the Constitution. Under this article the authority designated to appoint the duty of protection and supervision is the TSK as opposed to a civilian political authority. This article has been used by the military to stage five different types of military coups since 1960.
Erdoğan said last Sunday that his party will seek a consensus, i.e., the approval of other political parties in Parliament to lift this law, whereas the government neither needs support nor a change in the Constitution to do so. It displays the ruling party’s current lack of readiness to make such radical reforms on its own initiative, most likely to avoid further agitating the TSK.
But the paradox in Turkey is that neither the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which is supposed to be leftist oriented, nor the junior opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) play a role in furthering democracy. The absence of democratically oriented political parties in Parliament as well as the existence of hard-liners within the AK Party stands as a major stumbling block before the introduction of radical reforms.
