Each military intervention has had a devastating impact on the country in all spheres, hindering the nation's growth and maturation. If Turkey has currently been suffering from the absence of social and political cohesion and an onslaught of economic ills, it is because of the interventions by the TSK.
These undemocratic practices have also inflicted serious injury on the TSK itself, distracting it from bringing itself up to the standards of the 21st century, both from a technological and doctrinal point of view. It is the armed force with the highest number of personnel in NATO after the US, but it still lacks professionalism, and it is behind other alliance members in terms of advanced equipment; it is still heavily dependent on other countries for critical military technologies.
The TSK's involvement in politics, stifling modernization as a result of its force, has led to its reputation in the Western world as an armed force behind the times. This perception is not in line with the amount of money Turkish taxpayers pour into national defense at the expense of a growing poverty rate.
Government spokesperson and Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Çiçek revealed late last year that Turkey has spent around $1 trillion for the 25-year-old fight against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) terrorists, active mainly in the country's Kurdish-dominated Southeast. It is easy to calculate what Turkey could have done with that amount of money if the terror problem had been curbed long ago.
Inefficient and weak politicians, failing to come up with any peaceful solutions to this problem, have left the terror problem in the hands of the TSK. In other spheres where politics also should have come as a remedy, the TSK has been given wide space for maneuver.
However, an almost two-year-long investigation and a trial over coup plotters calling themselves Ergenekon, an ultranationalist gang that takes its name from a legendary valley in Central Asia believed to be the ancestral homeland of Turks, has raised hope that the legal process will now discourage those seeking to interrupt the political process through armed or unarmed interventions.
The suspects in the Ergenekon case include retired generals, active officers, journalists, academics, businessmen, politicians, union leaders as well as ordinary criminals.
A recent development has unearthed close connections among some journalists and the former commanders -- some of whom are suspects in the Ergenekon case -- as they worked jointly to dislodge the current government.
Last Monday a Turkish Web portal, www.tempo24.com.tr, published documents seized from the computer of Cumhuriyet daily's Ankara representative Mustafa Balbay, currently in jail over his alleged role in a military coup plot. He was arrested on charges of "attempting to overthrow the constitutional order of the Republic of Turkey."
The documents include a detailed "coup diary" kept by the representative, who took notes on his past meetings with army generals.
A police investigation into Balbay's computer revealed that the journalist was taking notes on his talks with several individuals, including army generals, journalists and union leaders, most of whom currently stand as Ergenekon suspects. The journal of his notes -- which some are calling a "coup diary" -- is 66 pages long and includes the gang's plans to stage a military coup and overthrow the government.
This latest event, as well as the Ergenekon investigation as a whole, tells us that the Turkish Parliament -- the target of the Ergenekon suspects in their coup plans, according to the second indictment released lately by the prosecutors -- should launch an investigation into both the past coups and the recently revealed attempts to interrupt the rule of law.
It is extremely abnormal that Parliament has so far been indifferent to both the past coups and the current coup attempts, which sought to destroy its very foundation. The Ergenekon case can go nowhere if the Turkish Parliament does not take action against coup plotters nor resume legal reforms that will enhance democracy.
Benzer Haberler 
