The reshuffle has come late because Turkey has needed a fresh start since 2005, the year that it has abandoned major military and civilian reforms, disappointing those Turks who extended overwhelming support to the AK Party's first term, during which historic democratic steps were made.
In the 27-member Cabinet, eight ministers were removed and nine new faces became ministers. Seven were moved to different posts. The performance of the new ministers will tell us whether the major change in ministries will mean the resumption of reforms in all spheres.
Minister of Health Recep Akdağ and Minister of Defense Vecdi Gönül, however, have broken a record by retaining their posts since the November 2002 elections that brought the AK Party to power.
Akdağ has pioneered serious reforms in the health sector, though it is still deprived of a budget that can effectively address the ailing sector's huge problems. His reforms helped redress the grievances of the health sector to a certain extent, but he could not break the strong lobby of doctors that run lucrative private clinics while refusing to treat patients at a much cheaper price in the hospitals that they work for.
The Turkish Defense Ministry under Gönül has also introduced a new defense procurement strategy that has been boosting the domestic production of arms systems, for which Turkey has relied upon imports for decades, by about 25 percent. However, in this positive change, credit should be given to Murad Bayar, the head of the Undersecretariat for the Defense Industry (SSM), who has played a major role in boosting the domestic defense industry while reducing the intervention of the military in arms procurement. A clear-cut division in the relationship of the user (the military) and the buyer (civilians) in the defense industry is among the key elements of transparency and accountability; such a relationship also avoids accusations of corruption against the military.
But apart from supporting Bayar and the government in the introduction of a policy to make the domestic industry more efficient in the local production of arms systems, Gönül has not made any efforts to help the government reduce the political power of the country's Turkish Armed Forces (TSK). He is still the only civilian at the Ministry of Defense, which is stuffed full of uniformed men; meanwhile, the TSK is not subordinated to him, but to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Chief of General Staff Gen. İlker Başbuğ's two latest meetings with the press, during which he talked on political issues that do not fall within the military's responsibilities, have displayed Gönül and the political authority's inability, in general, to fully take political issues under the ministry's control.
By keeping Gönül in the position of defense minister, the government has made a statement that it is no different than that of previous governments in Turkey when it comes to appointing low-profile figures to this controversial position.
Turkish defense ministers, thus, can neither satisfy the reformists in Turkey nor the TSK, as both represent opposing views, with the former seeking to bring democratic standards to the TSK and the latter resisting a reduction of its power in politics.
Low-profile defense ministers are always caught between those two opposing views, failing to satisfy either side.
Gen. Başbuğ's April 14 speech reaffirmed the military's thinking that there is a special situation in Turkey that does not require the military to reduce its power in politics. However, Başbuğ underlined how urgent the military reforms are for Turkey, in order to enable the TSK to execute its sole duty of defending the country against possible threats.
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