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NATO meeting proves civilian-military relations problematic
According to a report in the Akşam daily yesterday, Chief of General Staff Gen. İlker Başbuğ did not attend the informal foreign ministers' meeting because protocol adhered to in Turkey on such occasions and that of NATO differ. Experts note that traditionally, Turkish chiefs of General Staff have avoided NATO's annual informal foreign ministers' meetings so as not to be seated behind the defense minister.
In Turkey’s protocol hierarchy, the chief of General Staff is the fourth person following the president, the parliament speaker and the prime minister. Cabinet ministers, including the defense minister, are ranked 10th in the Turkish protocol list. In NATO’s protocol hierarchy, defense ministers come before chiefs of general staff. If Chief of General Staff Gen. Başbuğ had joined the meeting, he would have had to sit behind Defense Minister Vecdi Gönül. In addition to Gönül, Undersecretary of the Defense Ministry Gen. Ahmet Turmuş, Defense Ministry department heads, who are also generals, and other bureaucrats from the ministry attended the meeting.
However, Adnan Tanrıverdi, a retired colonel and former head of the Advocates of Justice Association (ASDER), said it is not unusual for chiefs of general staff not to attend meetings for foreign ministers. Indeed, only nine countries’ chiefs of general staff joined the NATO meeting on Thursday and Friday, whereas 37 countries’ defense ministers and 15 countries’ deputy defense ministers were in attendance.
Tanrıverdi said: “NATO has meetings for defense ministers and meetings for chiefs of general staff. The General Staff is attached to the ministries according to NATO protocol. But the defense minister and his undersecretaries attended. In other words, the undersecretaries fill the position of the chief of general staff there.” He said it was not unusual for undersecretaries to fill in for chiefs of general staff in these meetings.
2010 is widely considered to be of critical importance for NATO in Afghanistan. Defense ministers of the transatlantic alliance gathered in İstanbul on Thursday for a two-day informal meeting focused exclusively on Afghanistan and on developing the alliance’s new strategic concept.
NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen and US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates were among participants at the meeting hosted by Turkish Defense Minister Gönül.
Military chief says GATA incident is ‘indefensible’ Chief of General Staff Gen. İlker Başbuğ has said the Gülhane Military Academy of Medicine’s (GATA) refusal to allow the prime minister’s wife, Emine Erdoğan, to enter its facilities because she wears a headscarf is “indefensible.” “I wish such an incident had never occurred. It is impossible to defend,” he stated during an interview with a group of journalists from the Hürriyet daily. His remarks came as a sign of remorse over the heartbreaking incident, which occurred in 2007. Emine Erdoğan was hoping to pay a sick-bed visit to thespian Nejat Uygur, who was hospitalized at GATA at the time. She was told, however, that she would not be allowed to enter the hospital with her headscarf on. A controversial headscarf ban is in place in Turkey’s public sphere and applies to university students as well as those working in the public sector. Women wearing headscarves are not allowed to enter military facilities, including hospitals and recreation areas belonging to the armed forces. GATA’s refusal to allow the prime minister’s wife to visit Uygur was made public last week by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The incident brought Turkey’s long-standing headscarf question back on to the agenda. Başbuğ told Hürriyet journalists that the incident was a “special occasion.” “When we look, we see that the esteemed prime minister’s wife was part of the incident. So was Nejat Uygur, a respectable thespian. He is the son of a member of the military. Uygur’s wife was also involved in the incident. The three are the focus of the incident. Let me put it clearly that this incident was a special one,” he said, adding that he wished such an incident had never occurred. The military chief said he would not place the blame for the incident on anyone. “When making decisions about incidents, you need to know all of the conditions. The wife of the esteemed prime minister was saddened by the incident. But I guess the person who was most distressed was Uygur’s wife,” he remarked. Arınç: Isn’t that a TV show? Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç expressed his dissatisfaction on Friday about Başbuğ’s comments on GATA’s refusal to allow the prime minister’s wife to enter its facilities. When reporters asked Arınç about Başbuğ’s remarks, he said: “Did he say ‘I wish the GATA incident had never occurred?’ Is ‘I wish’ not a TV show? There is a show with that name on TV. Which TV channel is that?” Interior Minister Beşir Atalay and Justice and Development Party (AK Party) Deputy Chairman Hüseyin Çelik, however, said they were pleased with Başbuğ’s remarks. “The chief of general staff made a reasonable statement,” noted Atalay, while Çelik said: “Başbuğ’s statement was pleasing. This is a positive development, both in the name of our democracy and human rights. I find it really positive.” İstanbul Today’s Zaman |
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