Civil-Military Relations in Turkey During the A.K Party Era

Abstract

The Turkish military has been maintaining a pivotal role in the political system of Turkish state. It has gained larger power in the consolidation and control of the government since the establishment of modern Turkey in 1923 by Mustafa Kamal Ataturk. Turkish Military considered themselves as the guardian of Turkish secularism and national interest which have much reliance in Kemalism. This kind of responsible nature enable them to intervene in the civil governance and internal political system. The democratic consolidation cannot be achieved without the subordination of a country’s military to civilian control and its allegiance to the democratic constitutional order. Turkey has been considered as a 'deep state' which associated with authoritarian, criminal, and corrupt segments of the state that function in a democratic regime by exploiting and reproducing its deficiencies. At the same time, the deep state derives legitimacy from that political regime in exerting a coup threat, instigating military interventions, and committing organized crime and extra-judicial killings within the boundaries of the formal security apparatus. But military's influence has been decreased in the essence since the emergence of AK Party (Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi) as the ruling power in 2002. Various means of containment taken by the ruling party mostly contributed to the gaining power of civil supremacy. This paper will analyze the civil-military relations in Turkey during the rule of AK Party.