Turkey particularly recently has taken very prominent steps on the way to reach the standards of western democracies. With the amendment of the Constitution in 2010 the majority of the public showed that they support the respective reforms. The support granted by the public not only showed that the things done to date are on the straight path but it also became a great source of inspiration and motivation for the new and multi-dimensional transformation endeavors.
One of the fields that need reformation and transformation was the reconfiguration of the Turkish Armed Forces (TAF), civil will and TAF relations and reconstruction and operation of the Supreme Military Council (YAŞ). Although the Council has served a very harsh attitude for the continuation of military tutelage over the community, politics and military structure interestingly it has never attracted attentions up to date. In Turkey predominated by the traditional social structure, since there is a great trust toward the TAF everything done by it has been appreciated by the society and politician at a high level without any questioning. However, deploring portrait coming out with the Ergenekon and Balyoz lawsuits within the context of coup d’état attempts toward the Parliament and the government has disappointed all segments of society and also the political will deeply.
The officers of whom there are many serious accusations within the frame of these lawsuits and thus arrested by the resolution of the independent courts being protected by the higher authorities of the TAF and being promoted or extension of their office terms via the resolution of Supreme Military Council has caused the relations between Government and TAF and also the Supreme Military Council Meetings process to be more delicate and fragile. Within this general frame the Council Meeting of 2010 passed problematically thus the political will for the first began to scrutinized the Meetings and focus on the shaping of the commanding echelon. Therefore, the Council remains something emergently to be transformed. In that sense the profound changes are inevitable. With these concerns Institute of Strategic Thinking realized a workshop on Supreme Military Council and Government-TAF relations and published a text on the results and recommendations coming out of this workshop as a report.
In this study, topics such as reconstruction of Supreme Military Court, resolution procedures and duties, judicial inspection of the Council resolutions, the state of the suspects and detainees of the Ergenekon and Balyoz lawsuits, promotion, appointment and extension of the term of office of the general and admirals and the discharge of the officers from TAF have been handled and discussed. The findings and recommendations concerning the aforementioned topics have been summarized and articled.
1) First of all, the processes such as promotion, appointment, extension and discharge from the TAF should be taken out of the duties and responsibility of Supreme Military Council and it should be transformed as a advisory institution. In this context, the Council should be responsible for issues such as determining the Military Strategy Concept and Modernization of the TAF as defined in the 3rd Article of the Code 1612 Concerning the Foundation the Supreme Military Council and Duties.
Parallel with this the regulation defined below should be done:
a) The promotions of the colonels as generals or admirals should be realized in accordance with the 121st Article of the Code 926 Concerning TAF Personnel with common consent.
b) Promotion, appointment and extension of the term of office of the general and admirals should be realized in accordance with the 121st Article of the Code 926 Concerning TAF Personnel with common consent.
c) The process of discharge of personnel from the TAF due to lack of cadre, inefficiency, indiscipline and ethical issues and other reasons defined in legislation should be taken out of the authority of the Council.
2) Should the actual structure of the Council is kept certain regulations that would sentence the resolutions taken in the Council Meeting to the approval of the president. Or else the problems faced up to date will go on, the government-TAF relations will be confined to a problematic field.
In that sense,
a) The government, with the authority granted to it by the Parliament to draw Decree Law should amend the 5th Article of Code 1612 Concerning the Foundation and Duty of the Supreme Military Council by adding a paragraph stating “The resolutions enters into force by the approval of the president. Those are not approved by the president are invalid. In this case, promotion, appointment and extension of the term of office of the general and admirals should be realized in accordance with the 121st Article of the Code 926 Concerning TAF Personnel with common consent,” the political will’s rule will be maintained in any regulation to be done in the commanding echelon of TAF (promotion, appointment, extension of the term of office and discharge from TAF) as in advanced democracies and all problems in this context will be overcome.
b) By amending the 125th Article of the Constitution the resolutions of the Council including promotion and retirement due to lack of cadre should be subjected to the inspection of judicial authorities.
3) General principles and processes recommended to be done concerning Ergenekon and Balyoz lawsuits suspects and detainees
a) Promotion and appointment of the detained personnel in Ergenekon and Balyoz lawsuits are not possible judicially.
b) The personnel who are tried (arrested/pending) under Ergenekon and Balyoz lawsuits and have filled the latency time of their ranks should be retired.
c) The arrested personnel whose latency time has not finished and tried under the respective lawsuits should be laid.
d) The personnel tried without arrest under Ergenekon and Balyoz lawsuits should be taken to passive positions.
e) The generals admirals who are tried in these lawsuits but still not promoted should not also be granted with an extension of term.
Translation: Elvani
