3 November 2009 / STAR NASUHİ GÜNGÖR,
In order to correctly identify the spot the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) should occupy within the system as a whole, just making some legal changes is not enough.
It needs to be explained why it is that the TSK needs a new “mission.” In this sense, the continuation of dialogue and talks between Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Chief of General Staff Gen. İlker Başbuğ is vitally important. Here is the question that Turkey is facing: Should the military be weakened in the name of debating just what role this institution plays within the system or should the Turkish military’s doors be flung open to a new period with a whole new set of goals? If you lean toward the second choice, the military will be transformed from being an institution that makes plans against the nation’s own government into an institution that possesses a working dynamism.
