The lately disclosed Sledgehammer coup plot under investigation by the judiciary has proven that juntas within the military will not give up their desire to get involved in activities running contrary to both the Constitution and a democratic state. The Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) have interfered in the political system through five different types of intervention since 1960. Some have taken the form of coups and some the form of indirect interventions such as an e-memorandum released by the TSK in April 2007 against the government.
Different reasons, such as the perception of a rise of Islamic fundamentalism that is alleged to change the secular character of the nation or a worsening economic situation, as was the case with the 1960 coup, have been used as a pretext for staging coups or interrupting the political system resulting in serious instability.
Today it has become clear that the TSK will not give up the privileged status it has enjoyed for decades or its role in sharing power unless the government takes legal steps to eliminate all the relevant laws and secret regulations that maintain the military trusteeship regime.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has announced some steps towards this end, but they have fallen short of satisfying the needs for quicker normalization. For example, he did not signal removing, in the foreseeable future, Article 35 of the TSK’s Internal Service Law. This law is used by the TSK as a reason for staging military coups and interventions into politics.
However, sooner or later the TSK should be guided towards change by the civilian authorities while it should take the necessary measures itself, too, to adjust to changing world conditions. First and foremost, the TSK should go back to its barracks and deal only with threats that may come from outside.
Retired Gen. Hilmi Özkök, a former Turkish chief of general staff who put his stamp on positive change within the TSK by not placing obstacles before the political authority for military reforms, told the Radikal daily yesterday that the TSK should also change. “If you cannot change, you will be left out of developments,” he stressed.
One of the important areas in which the TSK should meet democratic standards has been its budget, which is neither transparent nor accountable. The government has, however, finally taken a step to enable this. A renewed draft of the Court of Auditors Law was at last submitted to Parliament this past Monday for discussion in the planning and budgetary commission before being debated for approval by Parliament.
The existing Court of Auditors Law allows the audit of military expenditure to a certain extent. But these auditing activities have already fallen short of turning into a real inspection of military items, such as arms and fixed property as well as its budget because of severe resistance from the military.
Reforms that paved the way for good governance, such as decreasing the TSK’s active role in the political domain, parliamentary supervision of the Defense Ministry budget and the extra budgetary resources allocated to defense through the Court of Auditors, were initiated in the early 2000s. The Public Financial Administration and Control Law, which was approved in December 2003 and went into effect in January 2005, also stipulated parliamentary oversight of the TSK’s budget through the Court of Auditors.
Another regulation that stipulated civilian oversight of military expenditure was realized with an amendment made to the Constitution. With the legal adjustment publicly known as the 8th Harmonization Package, an amendment was made to the last clause of Article 160 of the Constitution on May 7, 2004. With this amendment, the principle of auditing the TSK-held state property through the Court of Auditors in the name of the Turkish Parliament was legalized, which was another step towards lifting the veil of secrecy over this matter.
However, due to the failure of Parliament in passing the Court of Auditors Law in the past four years, these legal changes have been prevented from being implemented.
If the draft Court of Auditors Law is passed this year, an important step will be taken towards ensuring civilian democratic oversight of the TSK’s budget, one of the grey areas that allows the military to retain its privileged status.
