Civil-military relations and military change in Turkey

Until the turn of the millennium, civil-military relations in Turkey were characterised by a strong military with considerable political influence on the one hand, and relatively weak civilian governments on the other. However, since 2002 this relationship has changed in favour of the civilian government, and the military has lost most of its direct influence on the political decision-making process. In this paper it is argued that the changes in civil-military relations to a great extent can be explained by processes of change in the military organisation itself - first and foremost in how the military leadership views its political role and how this role should be exercised. This shift is also reflected in changes in the organisational culture of the armed forces where the new generation of officers seems to adhere to democracy as the only legitimate system of government, and oppose military interventions in politics. The paper will be based on present literature in the field of military change and interview data from my ongoing PhD project on civil-military relations in Turkey.