Erdoğan vows to abolish EMASYA protocol, revise security priorities

    Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also signaled that the government will revise national security priorities to reflect current challenges and will likely drop internal threat assessments that have nothing to do with real concerns. He further reiterated that the government plans to hold national elections in July 2011 as scheduled.

    The Protocol on Cooperation for Security and Public Order (EMASYA), which authorizes the military to conduct operations and intelligence gathering in cities without the approval of the civilian administration, has recently risen to the top of the Turkish agenda in connection with an alleged military coup plan.

    “No such thing as the EMASYA protocol can exist. We are taking necessary steps to abolish it. We will conclude our work to that end soon. This is a protocol, not a law. We will make legal changes if necessary. We will abolish the protocol,” Erdoğan stated during a live program on TRT 1 on Sunday. The editors-in-chief of the Zaman, Star, Sabah and Akşam dailies interviewed the prime minister.

    The moderators asked the prime minister whether the EMASYA protocol would continue to exist after an alleged military coup plan, titled the Balyoz (Sledgehammer) Security Operation Plan, had been exposed. “Our minister is coordinating the [government's] work to abolish the protocol. We will conclude them soon,” Erdoğan stated.

The controversial protocol was signed by the General Staff and the Interior Ministry on July 7, 1997 and empowers the military to intervene in social incidents on its own initiative. In accordance with EMASYA, the military can gather intelligence against internal threats.

Though the protocol was met with harsh criticism by politicians and analysts over the years, it has remained in force. Shortly after the Sledgehammer plan made its way into the Turkish newspapers, retired Gen. Çetin Doğan, who is believed to be one of the masterminds behind the plan, said the document was planned in accordance with EMASYA. The confession brought a new wave of criticism to EMASYA, with a large number of public figures calling for the protocol’s removal. The uproar has prompted Interior Minister Beşir Atalay to say the government is working to amend it.

National security priorities will change

Erdoğan also signaled that the government is gearing up to revise the so-called “National Security Policy Document,” a resolution that acts as a guideline for the military in situations of domestic conflict. “The document has no legal effect whatsoever as it is merely a resolution,” the prime minister said, stressing that his government will take the document up for revision this year in order to get rid of concerns raised by many in Turkey.

Guidelines expressed in the document, which is known as Turkey’s “secret constitution,” are considered to be very controversial as many civic movements are described as threats to the regime. Many criticized the document as a relic of the Cold War era. Erdoğan recalled his earlier remarks last week during which he said: “Seeing one’s own citizens as a threat, categorizing them into different camps and devising plots in that direction are things from another century. This is not worthy of a modern country or an advanced understanding of democracy.”

Erdoğan promised that his Cabinet will raise the issue in an upcoming National Security Council (MGK) meeting. “The MGK is not an executive body but merely an advisory council. We either turn these suggestions into Cabinet decisions or proceed to make new laws in line with them if needed,” he underlined. The prime minister explained that his government had already done some work on possible revisions to the security document and will implement them in 2010 as part of the democratization process launched last year.

The prime minister acknowledged that there are obvious signs that subversive plans were plotted but cautioned against overusing the word coup, out of fear that it might give legitimacy to claims. He stated, however, that the government is fully behind independent prosecutors who investigate these allegations. “Nothing will be swept under the rug during our tenure,” he emphasized, adding that they were trying to solve all mysterious murders.

Erdoğan also noted that the government will be patient and try to reduce tension in the country. “This mentality [of coups and plots] will not change overnight. That is why we are saying we have a lot of road to cover when we look at the advanced democracies in the world,” the prime minister said.

Elections to be held in 2011

In an attempt to settle the debate on the date of the next general elections in Turkey, the prime minister said 2011 would be the year for elections in Turkey, though it may be earlier than July 2011 considering weather and the summer vacation period. “However, nothing other than that can be considered. We will hold the elections during the scheduled time,” Erdoğan said. “Turkey should get used to this. We should not be a primitive country that changes its government every 16 months,” he also said.

The prime minister warned that debates over early elections might hurt the Turkish economy. “Global capital investors are asking me if we will have snap elections. I would say definitely not.”

Efforts by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s (OSCE) Minsk Group, which has striven to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict for more than 17 years, have not been productive, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Sunday.

Ankara, which last year agreed to re-establish diplomatic relations with Yerevan and reopen their mutual border, insists on seeing progress on the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, a territorial dispute between Baku and Yerevan, in parallel with its own efforts to normalize relations with Yerevan.

Speaking in an interview broadcast live on a state-owned television station, Erdoğan reiterated Ankara’s uneasiness over the grounds for an Armenian Constitutional Court decision on Jan. 12 that found protocols signed with Turkey in Zurich on Oct. 10 of last year in conformance with the Armenian Constitution, as the decision included preconditions and restrictive conditions.

“There has been serious neglect by the Minsk trio,” Erdoğan added, referring to the three co-chairs of the Minsk Group -- France, Russia and the United States. “They couldn’t bring this issue to a certain point in 20 years. If Russia, the US and France had worked hard within the past 20 years, none of these problems would have emerged; neither the trouble between us and Armenia nor a trouble between Armenia and Azerbaijan would remain,” Erdoğan said, suggesting that Armenia would have stepped back its occupation of the Azerbaijani territory if the co-chairs had put significant pressure on it. “The performance of Russia, America and France was below expectations,” he said. Ankara Today’s Zaman