Yazıcı: YAŞ photograph to be a permanent reality for Turkey

“That photograph is not a one-time thing, it will be permanent. Anyone who thinks the contrary believes that Turkey will move backward democratically,” Yazıcı told Today's Zaman.

Unlike past YAŞ meetings, in which the prime minister and the chief of General Staff sat together at the head of the table, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan sat alone at the head of the table this year, which was interpreted as a strong sign of normalization in civilian-military relations and of the civilian authority's superiority over the military.

YAŞ is a biannual meeting where appointments and dismissals within the military are discussed. This year's meeting took place shortly after four top military commanders, including the chief of General Staff, requested their retirement. The generals' move came in protest of the government's determination to not promote members of the military who are suspects in ongoing coup cases.

Yazıcı also emphasized that the new arrangement was in compliance with the law, saying that past practices, where the prime minister would be seated next to the army chief, were wrong and actually violated the law. He said this was an important step in civilianizing Turkey's administration and noted that the first move in this regard came with the constitutional changes adopted on Sept. 12, 2011, which included changes to the structure of the military judiciary.

Yazıcı said the 1982 Constitution, which is currently in place, gave government agencies and the military too much room to maneuver and often had their fields of authority and responsibility overlap. “The military used to be the most powerful institution in this sense because it had its own traditions that often allowed it to override the law. They saw the entire country as their barracks and we saw many coups d'état. If you look at this on paper, the military is bound by the Constitution, but it has intervened many times, relying on the Turkish Armed Forces' [TSK] Domestic Service Law.”

Deputies standing as suspects in ongoing trials

Yazıcı also shared his opinions on the Republican People's Party's (CHP) election strategy, which included appointing three jailed suspects currently standing trial on charges of involvement in a coup plot. He said the CHP did not get the voter support it had hoped for because it had appointed Ergenekon suspects. Ergenekon is a clandestine gang charged with plotting to overthrow the government. Two different courts have overturned requests from the newly elected deputies to be released, which prevented them from taking the parliamentary oath required to serve in Parliament. This led to a brief crisis, with the CHP boycotting Parliament, a crisis that was resolved when the CHP changed its mind.

“The main opposition party [CHP] is far from being able to solve Turkey's problems, which is why it will try to keep these [deputy-related] issues on the agenda at all times. Its deputies will keep talking about this in their speeches in parliamentary sessions. I have a feeling they might regret nominating these individuals as well. In fact, some of their members have said that. Turkey had to deal with a crisis that it really didn't deserve because of these nominations. It was sad for the CHP, which was established by [Mustafa Kemal] Atatürk, to boycott Parliament,” Yazıcı said.

In another note, Minister Yazıcı said it was inappropriate that a harsh statement from the military known as the April 27 [2007] e-memorandum, which accuses the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) of Islamizing Turkey, was still on the TSK's website.

Yazıcı also called on political parties in Parliament to “sit down” and start talking about a new and more democratic constitution without any “preconditions.” He said it was hard for the AK Party to say what kind of strategy it would use if opposition parties do not back work on drafting a new constitution, but he said they had no intention of making any special efforts to convince the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), which is also boycotting Parliament over a high court ruling stating that its deputy Hatip Dicle was ineligible to serve as a deputy due to a past terrorism-related conviction, to return to Parliament.