Articles
Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, May 2004, page 42
Talking Turkey
“Lists Scandal” Points to Decreasing Influence of Turkish Military
By Jon Gorvett
The banner headline was brief and to the point. “The military,” it read, “is spying on Turkey’s citizens.”After three military coups in which tanks took to the streets—and one in which merely the threat of the army marching caused the collapse of the government—writing a headline like that in Turkey is something no editor takes lightly. Yet this time, when it appeared in early March on the front page of Hurriyet, the country’s leading daily paper, it was the military itself that seemed to blink—and the fact that it did so indicates just how far Turkey has traveled since 1997’s “soft coup,” let alone the “hard coups” of 1960, 1971 and 1980.
The story that broke on March 9 was startling. In January of this year, the Turkish Land Forces Command (KKK) had sent a letter to all military headquarters and local civil governors, ordering them to begin collecting information on all groups and individuals within their districts who were undertaking—or who might be undertaking—“divisive and destructive activities.”
The letter then went on to take a surprisingly inclusive view of just who might be engaged in such business. While Satanists and even the tiny Turkish chapter of the Ku Klux Klan were mentioned, the country’s Circasian, Romany, Abkhasian, Albanian and Bosnian minorities also appeared. The letter then went on to include high society groups, groups linked to artists, children of well-to-do families, Masonic lodges, religious groups, Internet groups, and unspecified sex, drugs and meditation groups.
Local governors also were asked to report on local courses in minority languages, and on minority radio and TV stations—with particular emphasis on “pro-separatist” TV stations such as Med TV, Mesopotamia TV and CTV. Authors, writers and philosophical groups whose “aims may not yet be clearly established” also were featured on the list for investigation.
Finally, however, the most subversive lot of all was added—individuals “known to support” the U.S. and the EU.
Given that the Turkish military itself has made a great deal in recent years of how much it supports the EU and the U.S., this presents local governors with the touchy task of having to investigate the Land Forces Commanders themselves. And, with some 70 to 75 percent of Turks regularly telling opinion polls that they support EU membership, it also means investigating the vast majority of the Turkish population. Thus the headline: who, the newspaper asked, isn’t going to be on the army’s list?
Within a few days, the head of Turkey’s military, General Staff Chief Hilmi Ozkok, was obliged to explain. Clearly embarrassed by the whole incident, he accepted that, as head of the military, he was responsible for the event—although he added that he had not ordered the letter issued, as this had been entirely at the initiative of the KKK. Yet the KKK is headed by senior commanders with seats on the General Staff. It has enormous powers within the country, as it is the body that responds to calls for a direct military intervention on the nation’s streets made by the government—or local governors—in times of crisis. That it should be able to initiate such an action without the agreement of higher authorities seems bizarre.
The most subversive lot of all were individuals “known to support” the U.S. and the EU.
Meanwhile, the status of the list was still unclear. “The investigation into the intelligence issue is not yet complete,” Ozkok told journalists March 15. “When it is concluded, I will offer an explanation.”The following day, the General Staff denied that it was keeping files on anyone. The next week, however, the army announced it was investgating several officers from the Istanbul-based Second Armored Brigade for acting in an “uneducated manner” over the incident—passing blame for the lists back down the line to much less senior sources. But it does seem unlikely such commanders would have acted entirely alone.
Whatever the case, the incident has highlighted a number of key points about the relationship between the military and the rest of Turkish society—points that the generals themselves perhaps would prefer not to face.
First of all, the fact that a mainstream newspaper such as Hurriyet saw fit to reveal such a story marks a major change from the past. Many activities by Turkey’s military have long gone entirely unreported, including entire, army corps-level invasions of neighboring Iraq during the years before the Iraq war. Back then, large-scale military operations against Kurdish separatist rebels operating over the frontier were routine—and routinely ignored by papers such as Hurriyet, at least until they were long over and the army had given the all clear.
Meanwhile, the army also has long run internal operations to investigate Islamist and leftist groups, invariably without the involvement of civil authorities, including the police. The military’s Western Working Group was specifically formed in the late 1990s to investigate Islamist influence in the Welfare Party (RP), which was then the elected government of Turkey. It was the influence of this group that played a key role in the 1997 soft coup.
The military often has justified its secret police role on the grounds that it is a necessary measure to ensure that the secular state is not undermined or overthrown. This is its key role, both internally and externally, and clearly also lies behind the January letter to local governors. The KKK most likely saw itself as fulfilling a similar role of protecting the secular republic.
A Shift in Perspective
Yet the inclusion of pro-EU and pro-U.S. individuals and groups on the list demonstrates a major shift in perspective—one that most observers say has been under way for some time. It has dramatically accelerated, however, during the tenure of the current, strongly pro-EU Justice and Development Party (AKP) government. While the military long has advocated the Westernization of the country, with successive military leaders reaffirming their commitment to Turkey’s European and pro-U.S. direction, the process of democratization that joining the EU involves is today the most powerful factor in undermining the military’s authority in the country.The incident also demonstrates a growing confidence among the country’s business leaders. Hurriyet is owned by Dogan Medya, the country’s largest media group. The larger conglomerate to which it belongs has interests in a wide variety of other businesses, from banking to electricity distribution. So perhaps this is the other development illustrated by the “lists scandal,” as the Dogan papers also have dubbed it. Turkey’s business community also has come a long way in recent years, and “civil society”—the rather vague concept it champions—is now something grown sufficiently powerful and independent for the military to see as a major challenge. Thus the list called not only for an investigation of those with particular political opinions, but also those associated with a particular social class: what has often been dubbed “cosmopolitan.”
How this will play out in the months ahead is crucial. It seems, however, that the smart money no longer is on the military winning out—as it has been for most of Turkey’s history. That alone indicates just how much these are times of great change.
Jon Gorvett is a free-lance journalist based in Istanbul.
