A snapshot of the blackbox: a 2015 survey of the Turkish officer corps

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis paper aims at opening the blackbox of the Turkish military by presenting the findings of a survey conducted among 1401 officers in May–August 2015. The findings, which could be defined as the snapshot of the Turkish military’s officer corps views, show that, as the ranks decrease, there are some major trends influencing the officer corps. These include heterogenization and diversification of opinions from collectivist to an individualist understanding of life, from an elitist to an egalitarian view of society, and change from value-centric service to a focus on financial goals and career opportunities. The findings also indicate that the Turkish Army, Air Force and Navy’s organizational cultures are dissimilar regarding their stance towards military transformation, organizational restructuring and some socio-political issues such as the extent of secularist sentiment, religiosity and political orientations.