TURKEY’S MILITARY LEADERS SHOULD EXERCISE RESTRAINT: THE NEW YORK TIMES

Tert.am
08.03.10

The recent arrest or detention of dozens of Turkish military officers
for plotting an alleged coup could signal a significant shift in
power from the tarnished army to civilian leadership. These cases
could help strengthen Turkish democracy – provided the government
and the judiciary scrupulously apply the rule of law, reads a March
8 editorial piece in The New York Times.

For most of modern Turkey’s history, the army has been dominant,
and far too willing to use any means to keep Turkey a secular,
Western-oriented state.

That included overthrowing four democratically elected governments
since 1960.

As recently as 2007, writes The New York Times, the military tried to
block Abdullah Gul of the Islamic-influenced Justice and Development
Party (AKP) being selected as president largely on the ground that
his wife wore an Islamic headscarf.

The military’s hold on political life has weakened steadily under AKP
rule and pressure from the European Union, which has insisted that
as part of Ankara’s bid for membership, the military must become more
accountable to civilian leaders.

The recent detentions and arrests came after a small independent
newspaper, Taraf, published what it said were military documents from
a 2003 meeting describing preparations for a coup.

The military acknowledged the meeting but said it was focused only
on protecting the country from external, not domestic, threats. Since
the arrests, the military’s top leaders have shown welcome restraint.

Meanwhile, relations with the United States hit a new rut on Thursday
when the House Foreign Affairs Committee denounced the World War I
mass killings of Armenians as genocide and approved H.Res.252.

Instead of threatening Washington with retaliation for the vote,
Ankara should focus on getting a normalization deal with Armenia back
on track.

The United States and other Western countries need to keep nudging
Turkey forward while keeping the hope of EU membership alive and
credible.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan needs to curb his own autocratic
tendencies and push for replacing the military-imposed constitution
with one that enshrines rights for Kurds and other minorities,
religious and press freedoms, a commitment to secular rule and a
law-based judiciary. And Turkey’s military leaders need to continue
exercising restraint.