Reined in

A court verdict in Turkey sentencing 325 army officers, including top generals, to long prison sentences is a sign of how dramatically civil-military relations have changed in this country over the past decade.

The officers were accused of plotting to bomb mosques and trying to start a war with Greece in 2003 in order to justify a coup attempt against the Islamist government of Tayyip Erdogan.

The military was once supreme and didn’t hesitate to repeatedly stage coups. However, its power has declined significantly since Erdogan came to power a decade ago. As he consolidated his grip over power – his election victory in 2007 was by a larger margin than in the election in 2002 that brought him to power for the first time – he slowly clipped the wings of the military. Emboldened by his strong position, Erdogan initiated a probe into the 2003 coup plot. The flood of convictions and stern sentences are the culmination of that effort. Few would have anticipated even a few years ago that a civilian government would dare to initiate a probe let alone convict and punish generals. 

While the decline of the military vis-à-vis civilian institutions in Turkey is welcome, the country is not becoming more democratic. This is because Erdogan has been concentrating powers in his own hands. He is becoming increasingly authoritarian in his style of functioning. Extra-judicial killings, a hallmark of the years under military rule, and gross human rights violations continue to date. His government is intolerant of criticism. In fact, many believe that the coup plot was fabricated by the government to jail critics and dissidents.

The court ruling is likely to raise hackles in the military. The institution has seen itself as the custodian of Turkey’s secularism and modernity. It has been quiet over Erdogan’s steady steps to overturn what the military sees as its effort to modernise Turkey. Will it remain silent with the court verdict against former top brass of the military?

Some sections in Turkey believe that the government went overboard in its drive to nail the officers and that flimsy evidence was used to convict some of the accused. Such sentiments could deepen discontent in the armed forces. Erdogan is right in reining in the generals and asserting civilian supremacy over the military. However, his failure to democratise his government could cost him support among the people.