Turkey's Entire Military Command Quit

[ORAC]

Torygraph: Turkey's entire military command quits over row with government (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/turkey/8671459/Turkeys-entire-military-command-quits-over-row-with-government.html)

Turkey's entire top brass quit on Friday night leaving one America's strongest military's allies leaderless as the country's Islamic government confronts senior officers for conspiring against the prime minister

Gen Isik Kosaner, the head of the Turkish armed forces, quit his post along with the heads of the ground, naval and air forces in protest over government pressure to sack scores of serving officers they wished to promote.

The generals had been preparing for a confrontation with Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan at next week's annual promotions board. Gen Kosaner resigned because he "deemed it necessary," according to a report on NTV. Mr Erdogan had signalled he would block promotions for officers he believed were part of a conspiracy to destabilise Turkey and undermine his government.

The first elected prime minister from an Islamic movement was targeted by a conspiracy known as Sledgehammer, prosecutors have alleged. Police have drawn up a list of 195 suspect, all retired or active duty members of the military, who had been party to the plot since 2003, the year Mr Erdogan took office.

The authorities are holding 42 senior officers as part of the investigation into the alleged plot to overthrow the ruling Justice and Development Party.
Senior officers in the army had been trying to get the imprisoned officers promoted despite their incarceration, but the government has insisted that they be forced to retire. Officials have also hinted that they wish to seek charges brought against two former chiefs of staff, Gen. Büyükanıt, who has been accused of involvement in a 2005 bombing, while retired Gen Ilker Başbuğ has been accused of ordering subordinates to run subversive websites.

Turkey's military regards its role as guardian of the secular state established by Mustafa Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey. The second biggest military in Nato has steadily lost ground as Mr Erdogan is rewarded by voters for presiding over an economic boom.

The Turkish Lire fell more than one per cent on foreign exchange markets as analysts warned that the escalation of tensions and a protracted power struggle could derail Turkey's progress. "Things in Turkey look chaotic," Suha Yaygin, deputy chief of emerging markets at Toronto-Dominion Bank said. "This has never happened in Turkey."

The Turkish military serves in Afghanistan and has been battling an upsurge in Kurdish terrorism. More than 20 conscripts have been killed in recent attacks.
Its defenders rubbish the government claims of a vast deep state conspiracy believing the evidence presented so far is built on assumptions not hard evidence of wrong doing. The government said that Turkish democracy will lack credibility and be vulnerable to security service plotting if the cases are not prosecuted.

More than 400 people, including high profile academics, journalists, politicians and soldiers, are separately on trial for participation in another project – known as the Ergenekon Plot – to bring down the government.

[minigundiplomat]

If only........................................................ ...

[kbrockman]

Not certain that this is the right forum for it, but these developments going on in Turkey are quickly becomming a very worrying trend in that region of the world.
Secularism is ever more loosing ground and more strict religious based politics are on the rise in Turkey ever since Erdogan came to power.
Turkey , of all Muslim nations, has the potential to become the biggest threath to stability in te region and with neighbouring non Muslim nations.

Let's see in 1 or 2 years time when the uprising in all these nations is over and the new governments have taken power if things have changed in favor of more open and free democratic societies or, more likely, fundamentalist religion based countries.
Students and city people in these countries might long for more progressive, free and modern nations but fact is that the bulk of its population is still more or less illiterate and extremely consevative.
We might regret all this blind faith in a good sort of change by getting rid of all these, admitted very bad, despots and dictators just to have them replaced by religious fundamentalists.
If the history of Iran is anything to go by, things can turn out very much for the worse, If even Turkey follows in that worrying trend than things are loooking very bleak for anything or anybody non Muslim in that region of the world and eventually in the entire world.

This week also saw a very worrying shift in Egypt where the masses are now openly calling more for a Sharia based iso of a secular-Democracy style society, I bet that's not what the students wanted but that's sure what's ,potentially, hanging over their head

[Stuart Sutcliffe]

Easy for Erdogan to claim that there are plots to destabilise/overthrow him. What people forget is that he is attempting to remove people that he considers a threat to the underlying fundamentalist Islamic movement. That movement wants it's own sympathisers in all the key positions of power. Watch this space.

[Robert Cooper]

This is a much bigger deal than it appears. Turkey's entire military leadership resigning en masse is a direct challenge to Erdogan, and it will end one of two ways. Either the military will become much more Islamist and compliant or the military is getting ready to assume it's constitutional role of safeguarding Turkey's secular democracy, which means a coup could be in the making.

Bob C

[Diablo Rouge]

A long time ago; approx 2002, I was in Jordan watching an English language TV problem that I believe was transmitted from Israel.

Of interest was a debate in which Turkey alone was seen as the threat to the stability of the Middle East. I took note of the comments as they were far removed from the contempary political situation in the region at that time and appeared radical if not based on unfounded paranoia. Face value logic said that Syria and Lebanon would have been the countries of interest.

The debate suggested that an uprising akin to the historical Ottoman Empire was entirely possible. Unfortunately, history is not my bag, but it does appear that what is unfolding in the coming hours may have been foreseen by the Israelies long ago.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1e/Map-of-Ottoman-Empire-in-1900-German.svg/800px-Map-of-Ottoman-Empire-in-1900-German.svg.png
Not the most stable of regions that interestingly includes Bosnia & Kosovo.

[Dengue_Dude]

Military leaders with 'cojones', wow that's something to conjure with.

Shame those in Bliar's time and Brown's didn't do the same . . .

[ORAC]

Turkey military police boss named chief-of-staff (http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5j4b05gr2SwiT5AstKk9rZoe1pbUg?docId=CNG.22b1051d0cf8f41 29baecceecc4cef7a.591)

ANKARA — Turkey's military police chief was named acting chief-of-staff, after the country's top military command resigned in a row with the government, the prime minister's office said.

"The president has approved the assignment of military police chief General Necdet Ozel as the land forces commander. General Ozel is deployed as acting chief-of-staff," it said in a statement.

Turkish President Abdullah Gul, commander-in-chief under the constitution met with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Ozel on Friday evening, leading analysts to speculate that Ozel was likely to become the new chief-of-staff.

According to previous army practice, an officer should serve as commander of land forces before becoming chief-of-staff, media reports said.

[ORAC]

The Resignations in Turkey (http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/273154/resignations-turkey-victor-davis-hanson) By Victor Davis Hanson (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Davis_Hanson)

News that the top echelon of Turkey’s military offered their joint resignations is not much of a surprise, given ongoing politicized trials against particular officers, and the general acceptance that a secular military is at odds with an increasingly Islamicized government. But there will be lots of long-term ramifications. Turkey, as an historical window on the West, has been praised as about the only Middle East Islamic nation that accepted democracy without foreign imposition, and is often referenced as proof that there is nothing antithetical between constitutional government and a resurgent Islamism.

But with such departures of secular officers, the message grows more complicated and may be that if a high-ranking military official is Islamist, the way to advancement is assured; while the old secular path leads nowhere. Iran, Hamas, and Hezbollah seem to be more the eventual models, in which the military becomes a protector of Islam and ensures that the armed forces serve rather than prevent the insidious religious take-over of social institutions. Elections without strong independent judiciaries, constitutional protections of human rights, and freedom of unfettered expression and dissent mean little. In Turkey’s case, Erdogan brilliantly has curbed civil liberties and attacked the military under the guise of ensuring that a traditionally interventionist and secular defense establishment respects the verdict of elections, and he acts with the confidence that results from a rather strong economy under his leadership.

At some point, an ambitious Turkey, its military and government now in sync as in past Ottoman fashion, will reassert its prior influence in the Eastern Mediterranean and Aegean without too much worry over what a NATO rendered impotent in Libya, an imploding European Union, or a nearly insolvent U.S. might say. Greece — without money or many friends these days — should be worried, both over the unresolved tensions in Cyprus and over disputed areas in the Aegean. If Turkey pressed a bit, what would it have to worry about? A Germany angry over treatment shown its friend Greece? An ascendant and powerful NATO as evidenced through its brilliant air campaign against Qaddafi? A strong and assertive U.S. as shown by reset diplomacy over the last three years, and the financial health of America?

Israel too should be concerned. Turkey increasingly lends financial and spiritual support to the anti-Israeli coalition, and sees such frontline activism in line with a long tradition of uniting the Arab world behind one-world Islamism, directed from Istanbul. I think we are beginning to see the outlines of reset U.S. retrenchment as regional powers reassert influence in their respective spheres of influence. In short, I don’t think Turkey in the future is going to pay much attention to what the EU, NATO, or the U.S. has to say about its particular relationships with an Iran, Israel, Iraq, or Syria.

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

In short, are you suggesting that the Turks think America can't afford another war, and the Europeans can't win one?

[TBM-Legend]

Quick, dust of the maps of Gallipoli, divert a contingent of ANZACS from A/Stan and let's try again!:8

[TANTALLON]

I enjoyed a 3 year posting in Turkey and became close to the Turkish military and I can assure you they will not become more Islamist. They are committed to the preservation of Ataturk's legacy of secular government and that committment is non-negotiable.

[Whenurhappy]

Tantallon - I couldn't agree more. The concern is the actions of the Worry-worts in Brussels and elsewhere if the TGS decides to, err, restore, Attaturk's legacy...

The dichotomy is this: either a military-led (and stable, but nor particularly democratic) secular state or an Islamist-led (unstable, but democratic) state - on Europe's Eastern flank.

By the way, although 4 x 4 star generals resigned, there is another 360 Flag & General rank officers behind them, backed by one of the largest (and well-equiped) armed forces in the Western world.

[Tourist]

Tantallon
I also had an (exceedingly enjoyable) exchange with the Turkish, and they made that fact very plain to me also!