The Missing Piece of the Puzzle: The EMASYA Protocol and Civil-Military Relations in Turkey

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0095327X211066570
• Published date: 01 April 2023
• Date: 01 April 2023
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0095327X211066570

Armed Forces & Society

2023, Vol. 49(2) 470 –488

© The Author(s) 2022

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DOI: 10.1177/0095327X211066570

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1134644AFSXXX10.1177/0095327X211066570Armed Forces & SocietyKintzle et al.

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The Missing Piece of the

Puzzle: The EMASYA

Protocol and Civil-Military

Relations in Turkey

Ayfer Genç Yılmaz

1



Abstract

The civil-military relations literature on Turkey focuses predominantly on the

guardianship role of the Turkish military, its interventions, and the role of the National

Security Council as the main institutional mechanism of military tutelage. Yet, the

existing studies lack a much-needed focus on the law enforcement or policing missions

of the Turkish military. To f‌ill this gap, this study discusses the EMASYA Protocol

(Emniyet Asayis

¸Yardımlas

¸ma or Security and Public Order Assistance), a secret protocol

signed in 1997. Emerging in the context of political instability and military tutelage of the

1990s, the Protocol enabled the military to conduct internal security operations

without permission from the civilian authorities. This paper argues that the EMASYA

Protocol provided a sphere of “reformulated new professionalism”for the Turkish

military, enabled it to specialize in the war against rising internal threats such as re-

actionary Islam and Kurdish separatism, and created anomalies in civil-military relations

in Turkey.

Keywords

Civil-military relations, law enforcement, policing, EMASYA, Turkey

1

Istanbul Commerce University,

˙

Istanbul, Turkey

Corresponding Author:

Ayfer Genç Yılmaz, Istanbul Commerce University, ¨

Ornektepe Mah.

˙

Imrahor Cad. No. 88/2 Beyo˘

glu,

˙

Istanbul 34445, Turkey.

Email: ayfergenc@gmail.com

Genç Yılmaz 471

Introduction

Studies on civil-military relations (CMR) put special emphasis on military profes-

sionalism. Huntington, in his pioneer work The Soldier and the State (1964), described

the professional person as an expert with specialized knowledge and skill, and went on

to contend that the military profession is an exclusive role and the military must be

designed as a politically neutral off‌icer corps whose primary expertise is the man-

agement of violence (Huntington, 1956, p. 381). In this regard, a professional solider is

def‌ined as the “manager or exerciser of controlled violence”(McCann, 1979, p. 507).

The debate on the management of violence by the military was further explored by

Stepan (1973) who introduced the concept of “new professionalism”and criticized

Huntington’s concept which he called “old professionalism.”He argued that the new

professional military was highly politicized and the military personnel “acquired

expertise in internal security matters that were def‌ined as embracing all aspects of

social, economic, and political life”(p. 51) based on his explorations of the internally

oriented activities of the militaries in Peru and Brazil and their impact on CMR in these

countries.

Latin American countries have long served as f‌ields of research for scholars studying

the impacts of new professionalism for CMR. Particularly, in the mid-Cold War period,

the US-led assistance programs for the domestic use of Latin American militaries

against internal enemies within state borders was found to contribute to the em-

powerment of the military regimes in the region (Zaverucha, 2008).

1

Pion-Berlin

(1989, 396) in turn, analyzed the National Security Doctrine (Doutrina de Segurança

Nacional or DSN) of various Latin American countries to highlight the internal

missions of their militaries. The new professionalism of militaries worldwide was later

explored by other scholars as well. Watts (2001a,2001b) demonstrated the reasons and

consequences of the assignment of police roles to the military in transition states by

focusing primarily on Central and Eastern European states. Finally, Hernandez (1996,

p. 66–79) explored the Indonesian Army’sDual Function Doctrine while Honna (1999)

conducted a comparative study to demonstrate the differences and similarities between

the Indonesian and Latin American models of CMR.

In Turkey, the extant CMR literature emphasizes the guardianship role and inter-

ventions of the Turkish military and the role of the NSC as the main institutional

mechanism of military tutelage.

2

This literature is predominantly inspired by Hun-

tington’s concept of military professionalism. One exception is Uluçakar and Ça˘

glar

(2017) who analyzed the Turkish case from a comparative perspective of two models of

civil-military relations: separation and concordance.

3

Yet, CMR scholars have largely

neglected the domestic law enforcement or policing missions of the Turkish military

with some notable exceptions (Cizre, 2003;Uluçakar & Ça ˘

glar, 2017, p. 54). This

paper aims to further the debate on the convergence of the police and military functions

in Turkey and its resulting impact on the pattern of Turkish CMR.

To address this issue, this paper develops an analytical framework based on Stepan’s

concept of “new professionalism”and brings into focus the law enforcement and other

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