The General Staff says this landmark legislation, which is seen as a very important step Turkey has taken toward democratization and its EU goal, will lead to politics being involved in military affairs and destroy military discipline. However, analysts say the General Staff's opposition to this reform package is largely due to its lack of trust in the civilian judiciary and its actual desire to prevent the military from getting involved in politics.Questioning the possible reasons that might have led the General Staff to approach the legislation in question negatively, Bugün's Ahmet Taşgetiren says if its opposition results from a belief that there is nobody in the ranks of the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) making coup plans, their objections are not just because members of the military stage coups in this country. He says if the General Staff's objection results from a belief that only it can try coup plotters, it is not very successful on this issue, either. “Coup plotters who are successful rule. They only need to be successful in their coup attempt and do not look for legitimacy,” he says. If the General Staff's opposition results from an assumption that by allowing civilian courts to try members of the military in peacetime, discipline in the military will be destroyed due to constant accusations coming from civilians about members of the military, he says: “If only there had been a continuous stream of accusations up until now and coups had not been staged. Although I am a person who very much respects the military, I have to ask whether all members of the military, including the chief of general staff, are against coups or support them when the so-called circumstances call for it,” says Taşgetiren, stressing that the military of today has not fully given up on the idea of staging a coup. Addressing members of the military, he remarks that the TSK's opposition to the trial of members of the military in civilian courts is perceived by society as the TSK's will to retain “its right to stage a coup.” “It is more appropriate for Gen. İlker Başbuğ, who said the TSK will not harbor anyone with anti-democratic goals within its ranks, to say that the TSK will hand such individuals to the civilian judiciary itself,” suggests Taşgetiren.
Star's Mustafa Karaalioğlu dwells on the wrongness of the argument that allowing members of the military to be tried in civilian courts would lead to the involvement of politics in military affairs, terming this argument an irritating one. In his view, this legislation aims to prevent the involvement of politics in military affairs. “Some have come up and brought forward this argument while some media outlets have not refrained from carrying this issue to their headlines. Can anyone make an accusation about the military more unjustly than this?” asks Karaalioğlu. According to this argument, he says, when the civilian judiciary begins to investigate those involved in coup attempts, other members of the military will be motivated to engage in politics. “This is dark humor. There can be no worse argument than this, and it aims to discredit the TSK,” says Karaalioğlu.
Yeni Şafak's Fehmi Koru also says the aforementioned argument is an indication of a lack of confidence in the civilian judiciary. “Why should prosecutors pay attention to groundless accusations?” he asks. In his view, the goal of this legislation is to build a thick wall between the military and politics and to prevent civilians and members of the military from attempting to intervene in each other's domain.
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