An outlook into the Turkish civil‐military relations after the 2016 coup

• Published date: 01 May 2021
• Author: Mustafa Uluçakar
• Date: 01 May 2021
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2210

ACADEMIC PAPER

An outlook into the Turkish civil-military relations after the

2016 coup

Mustafa Uluçakar

Political Sciences and Public Administration,

_

Istanbul Gelis¸im University,

_

Istanbul, Turkey

Correspondence

Mustafa Uluçakar, Political Sciences and Public

Administration,

_

Istanbul Gelis¸im University,

_

Istanbul, Turkey.

Email: mulucakar@gmail.com; mulucakar@

gelisim.edu.tr

The main aim of this paper is to analyze the efficacy of the post 15 July civil control

measures by comparing them with the most common coup-proofing practices as well

as the Turkish civil control measures taken between 2002 and 2010. The data gath-

ering process of the study is based on the literature on coups, coup-proofing, and

evaluating the efficacy of coup-proofing practices. Additional data were collected

through the official gazette archives. The study begins with some remarks on the

concepts of the coup, coup-proofing, and democratic control of the military followed

by the brief history of Turkish civil control practices before and after July 15. Then it

discusses the most common coup-proofing practices. This section is followed by a

comparative analysis of post-15 July civil control measures with the most common

coup proofing examples and the Turkish civil control measures taken between 2002

and 2010.

1|INTRODUCTION

Throughout the adventure of its multiparty democracy, Turkey's polit-

ical life was interrupted by military coups almost every decade. In this

respect, the Turkish military has intervened in politics seve times since

1960. Popularly elected political authorities were ousted on May 27,

1960, March 12, 1971, and September 12, 1980, coups, while the

incumbent government was forced to resign on February 28, 1997.

Moreover, Turkey experienced three failed coups (February 22, 1962,

May 21, 1963, and July 15, 2016).

Although there have been numerous civil control measures to pre-

vent the military interventions within the same period, the Justice and

Development Party (JDP) put the most drastic ones into effect between

2002 and 2010, parallel to the harmonization process with the EU

(Sarıgil, 2012, p.168). The expressed aim of those institutional and legal

reforms aligned Turkish civil-military relations with European standards.

According to Ersel Aydınlı(2009, p. 581), “these reforms created an

understanding that Turkey has most likely progressed beyond the era of

coups due to the EU-backed ‘paradigmatic shift’to change the traditional

role of the Turkish Military in domestic and foreign politics”.Gokhan

Bacik and Sammas Salur (2010, p. 163) called JDP's measures as “needed

instruments of coup-proofing”and added, “due to the development of

several transformative dynamics, political elites’“coup-proofing”capacity

is likely to improve”(Bacik & Sammas, 2010, p. 185).

Indeed, “coup-proofing”is defined by Quinlivan as “the set of

actions a regime takes to prevent a military coup”(Quinlivan, 1999, p.

133). He further states “if the essence of a coup is the seizure of the

state by a small group within the state apparatus, the essence of coup-

proofing is the creation of structures that minimize the possibilities of

small groups leveraging the system to such ends (Quinlivan, 1999, p.

132)”. He, therefore, describes coup-proofing as; strategies and practices

of “aregime”(any type of regime). Thus, prevention strategies and prac-

tices, also known as coup-proofing defined by Quinlivan is understood as

strategies and practices applied regardless of regime types and/or differ-

ences in the level of development of democracy.

Nevertheless, actions taken by a regime to prevent a military

coup categorically differ depending on the regime type. In societies

where factors such as freedom of the press, political participation,

checks, and balances in the branches of government and rule of law

are present, they tend to militate against military coups. However, in

political regimes where such dynamics are not strong, such as Syria,

Iraq, Saudi Arabia, or Libya, rulers have been able to prevent military

coups thanks to strategies and practices specifically called as “coup-

proofing.”Therefore, the term “coup-proofing”generally applies to

strategies and practices applied by authoritarian regimes and/or dicta-

torships in the related literature.

Contrary to the general view regarding “end to the coup era”, Tur-

key witnessed a coup attempt on July 15, 2016. Fairly a small faction

Received: 3 May 2020 Revised: 19 May 2020 Accepted: 29 May 2020

DOI: 10.1002/pa.2210

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https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2210