The Three Waves of Civilianization: Turkish Civil-military Relations 2001–2016

Civil-military relations in Turkey have gone a through a process of civilianisation since the turn of the millennium, restricting the political and institutional autonomy of the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) and subjecting it increasingly to civilian government control. In this Paper it is argued that the civilianisation process in Turkey has been characterised by favourable circumstances and government opportunism rather than a planned and negotiated settlement between civilian and military authorities. Civilianisation has come in three “waves”, each triggered off by significant events in Turkey since 2001: The opening for Turkish membership in the European Union after 1999, the Ergenekon and ‘Sledgehammer’ legal processes from 2008, and the 15th July 2016 military coup attempt. Each of these events presented the governmentwith opportunities to reduce the autonomy of the TSK and bring it increasingly under civilian control. It would be wrong however to see civilianisation solely as the result of government policies and manoeuvring vis-à-vis the military. A process of change in ‘role beliefs’ was also taking place within the military during the same period, in which a ‘traditionalist’ mentality of regarding the TSK as political guardian in the Turkish system was challenged by a ‘reformist’ attitude promoting a more withdrawn political role for the armed forces. Civilianisation of civil-military relations in Turkey can therefore be seen as the result ofan interplay between external circumstances, government policies and internal processes in armed forces over the last fifteen years. The Paper is a summary of the conclusions in my forthcoming PhD thesis.