Brought into the spotlight by recent debates that flared up after the discovery of a military plan to overthrow the government called Sledgehammer, the Protocol on Cooperation for Security and Public Order (EMASYA) was a product of the Feb. 28, 1997 postmodern coup and authorized the military to conduct operations and intelligence gathering domestically without the approval of the civilian administration.The Interior Ministry announced that the protocol was cancelled, an indication of both the government’s determination on the issue and a consensus at the top levels of the state. After Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan clearly vowed to eliminate the protocol during a TV program on Sunday, President Abdullah Gül stated earlier this week that the country no longer requires the protocol and that it should be annulled. Similarly, Chief of General Staff Gen. İlker Başbuğ also told a Turkish daily that the protocol could be eliminated because Turkey does not need it. Applauding the government’s move, analysts say the elimination of the controversial protocol could pave the way for steps to abolish other legislation that strengthens the grip of the military tutelage on the country.
Stating that the EMASYA document was used as a basis for coup plots, Star’s Mustafa Karaalioğlu says the protocol did not conform to democracy. “Although a bit late, Turkey has turned away from an error and took a significant step toward civilianization. Prime Minister Erdoğan, who vowed to eliminate the protocol during a TV program, also gave a promising example for other such steps by fulfilling his vow in a week,” he says. Karaalioğlu also underlines that civil society and the media played a noteworthy role in eliminating the protocol. “The consensus, which was easily reached in Ankara, was in large part due to the success of civil society,” he says, adding that strong public support backed the decision to cancel the protocol.
Defining the abolishment of EMASYA as pulling out the dagger that stabbed the Turkish nation’s back in the Feb. 28 coup, Ahmet Altan from the Taraf daily, the paper that brought the protocol to the agenda when the Sledgehammer military plot was exposed, thinks the Feb. 28 process ended on Thursday. “A ghost that haunted the public has vanished. The military will take one more step back from the civilian sphere. It will return to its own profession now,” he says. Altan is hopeful about other problems regarding civilian-military relations as he thinks the abolishment of EMASYA has become a source of self-confidence and power for the nation.
Star columnist Mehmet Altan thinks EMASYA-like anti-democratic legislation should and will be eliminated in Turkey as the world wants neither “military tutelage” nor a “military state” for long. “Not only will this legislation be cancelled, but also those who fail to evaluate the current situation will lose. Those who understand today, on the other hand, will come out on top,” Altan says.
Murat Yetkin from the Radikal daily stresses, however, that eliminating EMASYA does not imply military reform. He says such reform can start with the elimination of the controversial definition of a domestic threat and with revision of Article 35 of the Internal Service Code, which stipulates that the duty of the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) is to protect the Turkish motherland and the Constitution.
