[Event of the week] Civilian government emerges victorious in week-long appointment deadlock

Although this year’s Supreme Military Council (YAŞ) meeting, where the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) command echelon is decided upon, ended on Aug. 4, there was still uncertainty as to who would assume the command of the land forces. Finally, on Sunday, Gen. Ceylanoğlu, who had previously been appointed as the commander of the 1st Army Corps, was picked as land forces commander and Gen. Koşaner was appointed as the new top military commander after two separate decrees on the appointments bearing the signatures of outgoing Chief of General Staff Gen. İlker Başbuğ and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan were approved by President Abdullah Gül at midnight.

Both posts were left unfilled at the end of the annual YAŞ gathering, which ended on Aug. 4, after the government and the military clashed over who would lead the ground forces.

This year’s YAŞ meeting and the subsequent controversy over the two top military posts comes as a strong sign of normalization in Turkey’s unsettled civilian-military relations, with the civilian wing playing a decisive role in the appointment and promotion of senior commanders, despite established military traditions.

“Aren’t we going to use our authority? We are not supposed to nod our heads to everyone. We also have authority granted by law. We exerted our authority,” Erdoğan said, commenting on the appointments of the generals on Sunday.

Outgoing 1st Army Corps Commander Gen. Hasan Iğsız, who was hoping to assume the post of land forces commander in accordance with the traditional military hierarchy, was at the center of the disagreement between the military and civilian wings of the council. The civilians strongly opposed his appointment after he was called to testify as a suspect in a probe into Ergenekon, a criminal network accused of plotting to overthrow the government.

Aug. 7 Saturday

 Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu met with Ali al-Dabbagh, the Iraqi government spokesman. The two had extensive discussions on Iraqi political groups’ efforts regarding the formation of a government in Iraq, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Aug. 8 Sunday

 Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said the government and the military had agreed on Turkey’s new land forces commander and chief of General Staff, whose appointments turned into a Gordian knot with days-long efforts by the military to have its nominees accepted.

 Gen. Erdal Ceylanoğlu, who was previously commander of the 1st Army Corps, was appointed to the Land Forces Command and Gen. Işık Koşaner was appointed the new top military commander after two separate decrees bearing the signatures of outgoing Chief of General Staff Gen. İlker Başbuğ and Prime Minister Erdoğan were approved by President Abdullah Gül at midnight.

 A groom killed his own father and two aunts and injured eight others when he fired bullets into the air at his wedding in the southeastern province of Gaziantep.

 Three soldiers were killed when a military vehicle was hit by a remote-controlled mine believed to have been planted by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the Nusaybin district of Mardin. Two of the soldiers died at the scene and the third died at the Diyarbakır Military Hospital where he had been taken for treatment. The slain soldiers were identified as Spc. Sgt. Zeki İnan, Spc. Sgt. Hacı Ahmet Efil and Spc. Sgt. Taner Özdemir.

Aug. 9 Monday

 A shuttle carrying employees of Turkey’s national flag carrier Turkish Airlines (THY) overturned in İstanbul’s Yenibosna neighborhood early in the morning, killing three people and injuring seven others. The traffic accident happened at around 6 a.m. when a THY minibus, driven by İnan Çetin, hit a Metrobus barrier at Yenibosna.

 Retired Gen. Çetin Doğan was surprisingly discharged from the hospital he had been staying at for more than two weeks with complaints of high blood pressure after an order for his arrest was revoked by an İstanbul court. The general is accused of masterminding a coup plan, titled the Sledgehammer Security Operation Plan, against the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government.

 In protest of a Republican People’s Party (CHP) move to refer him to the party’s disciplinary board for expulsion, Eşref Erdem announced that he had resigned from the main opposition party. Erdem had been referred to the board after he declared that he would vote yes in the referendum on the constitutional amendment package on Sept. 12. The declaration drew the ire of the CHP administration, which staunchly opposed the package.

 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at an inquiry into the Israeli naval raid on a Gaza aid flotilla that Turkey had ignored warnings and appeals “at the highest level” many days before the fatal clash. In remarks likely to further infuriate Ankara, the prime minister also made a reference to a fuel swap deal brokered by Turkey and Brazil with Iran. Netanyahu was the first witness to testify in the state-appointed inquiry into the Israeli raid at sea on May 31 in which Israeli commandos killed eight Turkish and one Turkish-American pro-Palestinian activists after boarding their vessel from a helicopter.

Aug. 10 Tuesday

 Thousands of people marched in the western province of İzmir to urge voters to support a constitutional amendment package to be voted on in a Sept. 12 referendum. The march was organized by the anti-coup coalition 70 Million Steps Against Coups.

 A gendarmerie noncommissioned officer who reportedly worked for JİTEM, a secret and illegal military intelligence agency, testified yesterday of his own will to a prosecutor overseeing the case into Ergenekon, a clandestine criminal network accused of planning to overthrow the government. The officer reportedly provided crucial documents to prosecutor Zekeriya Öz confirming the existence of JİTEM, which is thought to be responsible for hundreds of murders and various other atrocities committed in the Kurdish Southeast under the guise of anti-terrorism efforts.

 Israel can by no means get away with denying its responsibility in a naval raid on a Gaza aid flotilla which led to the killing of nine civilian pro-Palestinian activists, and Turkey definitely is not responsible for the events leading up to the raid on May 31, Foreign Minister Davutoğlu said, refuting comments made by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu.

 Prosecutors and police crime scene investigation teams collected bullets and other evidence from the three ships from the Gaza aid flotilla that were returned by Israel following a two-month delay, with some observers suggesting that Israel tampered with evidence on the Mavi Marmara before returning it.

 The co-chairman of the Democratic Judiciary Association, Osman Can, said if jurists had taken action following the first deep state-related murders, the perpetrators of which have not been found, thousands of people would not have fallen victim to such killings. “Had jurists taken action when the first few victims were killed in unsolved murders, the number of victims would not have reached 17,000. [Journalists] Abdi İpekçi and Hrant Dink would not have been killed,” he said during a panel discussion titled “Sept. 12: Democracy, this time.”

Aug. 11 Wednesday

 Incoming gendarmerie commander Gen. Necdet Özel, who is expected to head the Turkish military in 2013, underlined the importance of staying within the limits of the law in counterterrorism efforts as he handed over his post as 2nd Army Corps commander to Gen. Servet Yörük.

 Rear Adm. Türker Ertürk announced that he decided to resign after being denied promotion to a higher rank at the Supreme Military Council (YAŞ) meeting. Ertürk was hoping to be promoted to vice admiral. However, he was instead appointed to the Mediterranean Regional Command.

 State Minister and chief EU negotiator Egemen Bağış told reporters after his meeting with visiting Belgian Foreign Minister Steven Vanackere in his office in İstanbul that it is “an insult to offer Turkey something like a privileged partnership at this point” in EU membership talks and that Turkey “will never accept this in any way.”

 Following the prime minister and the defense minister of the country, the chief of Israel’s military also testified at a national inquiry into an Israeli raid on aid ships on May 31, defending the “bravery, morality and calm” of the commandos participating in the deadly operation.

 Soon after a UN probe of Israel’s deadly raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla began on Tuesday, Ankara announced that it had established its own national commission for investigating the May 31 raid in order to draft a report to be introduced to the UN panel of inquiry. The Turkish Foreign Ministry, in a written statement released late in the day, recalled that a committee led by Foreign Minister Davutoğlu and Interior Minister Beşir Atalay had already been established for investigating the May 31 attack by Israeli security forces on the Gaza humanitarian aid convoy.

 Prime Minister Erdoğan spoke out against shaping military leadership in accordance with entrenched traditions, saying the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) are subject to the rule of law and regulations regarding who has the final say on the promotions of members of the military. “We cannot rule the TSK with traditions. The armed forces have their own laws and rules, and the Supreme Military Council (YAŞ) is a consultative body,” he said during a live interview on a local TV station in his family’s hometown, Rize.

Aug. 12 Thursday

 Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç said contradictory court decisions against suspects tried as part of a case against an alleged coup plan, called the Sledgehammer Security Operation Plan, are saddening. He was referring to the recent annulment of an arrest warrant against 102 Sledgehammer suspects, all members of the military, by an İstanbul court. The İstanbul 10th High Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant against the suspects on July 23. The İstanbul 11th High Criminal Court, however, withdrew the warrant.

 An Azerbaijan Airlines aircraft veered off a runway at İstanbul Atatürk Airport. A number of airplanes have had similar accidents. It is believed that the runway is too short, which is why several airplanes have driven off it.

 Retired Gen. Levent Ersöz, who is currently standing trial as a suspect in a court case based on the second and third indictments in the investigation against Ergenekon -- a clandestine criminal network accused of plotting to overthrow the government -- has blamed retired gendarmerie commander Gen. Şener Eruygur, who also stands accused in the investigation, for the activities of which he has been accused. Ersöz testified via video conference at a hearing of the Ergenekon trial and answered questions from prosecutors Mehmet Ali Pekgüzel and Bihat Taşkın. He said in his testimony that he had met with businessman Mehmet Emin Karamehmet and journalists Mustafa Balbay and Tuncay Özkan -- both Ergenekon suspects -- upon the orders of Gen. Eruygur.

Aug. 13 Friday

 A bomb found by a gas station near the Ankara Police Department’s riot division was defused by a bomb squad right before it was set to explode. Upon receiving notification of the device at 7 a.m., police officers and the bomb squad were immediately dispatched to the gas station. Police officers took security measures and cordoned off the scene, while the bomb squad managed to defuse the explosive.

 The results of the Undergraduate Placement Examination (LYS) were released. Out of 1,104,763 eligible candidates, 561,003 students have been enrolled in undergraduate and associate degree programs across Turkey. Meanwhile, 33,099 spots in undergraduate programs and 77,702 associate degree program seats remain unfilled.