Khorshid Delli
North-Press Agency
Since RAND Corporation published its report regarding the possibility of a new military coup in Turkey, in light of the national method of the Turkish policy which is followed by Erdogan, the controversy inside Turkey hasn't stopped regarding such a coup, since Erdogan, himself, was forced to talk about the matter, when he commented on the report, saying: "It's a rapprochement aiming at preventing Turkey from achieving its main goals.” although Erdogan's speech mirrored his procedures against the Turkish military institution during the past years under the name of "reformation", however, it was right opposite of the Turkish reality, which confirms that Erdogan is concerned about the probability of being subjected to a military coup, so he undertook a series of steps, which can be summarized in two complete articles:
First, he launched an extensive campaign of arrests among the army, including senior commanders, on the pretext of being involved in the failed coup attempt and supporting the group of the preacher Fethullah Gulen. In fact, the main objective of this campaign was to take away the disloyal members from the army leadership and its institutions, and to place those loyal to him ideologically and politically in the positions of the leadership, perhaps most of the army leaders appointed by Erdogan in the recent period are graduates of Imam al-Khatib institutes, which constitute the human reservoir of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) cadres, where many army officers were forced to flee outside Turkey or to stay in their homes because of Erdogan's policies.
Remarkably, Erdogan’s actions targeted the Turkish Airforce mainly, as there are reports which state that, half of the Turkish pilots are out of service now, and that Turkey is suffering from a severe shortage of pilots of F-16s. Hence, the Turkish authorities have been forced to call the retired pilots to serve again to fill the resulted vacuum. In return, Erdogan focused on developing land forces such as the army, the special forces, the police and the security forces.
Second, fundamental constitutional amendments with the aim of restructuring the military institution, and the role of this institution in the Turkish public life. Perhaps the most important amendment was the one of the Article 35, which stipulated that the mission of the army is to (protect the secular Turkish Republic), to be amended into the mission of (defending the Turkish citizens against the threats and the risks coming from abroad, and participating in the external operations approved by the Parliament).
Perhaps those who take a close look at the content of this amendment, will find that Erdogan's primary goal is to prevent a military coup against him, as those familiar with the Turkish situation, know very well that the Turkish army depended on this article to carry out a series of military coups (1960 – 1971 – 1980 – and what was known as the white coup against Erbakan in 1997).
With this amendment, Erdogan aimed to restrict the mission of the army to abroad only and away from the interior, therefore, the charge of preparing for a military coup against Erdogan regime will be waiting for any movement at home, and perhaps this explains the content of Erdogan's comment on what the report of Rand Corporation was about, on one hand, and his insistence on deporting the army from the inside and occupying it abroad, on the other hand, especially in Syria, Libya, Iraq, Greece … and other areas which have become swamps for the Turkish army, mainly after Erdogan turned it into a tool to implement his agendas abroad as his uncontrolled Ottoman ambitions, as Erdogan's weapon regarding all of that was changing the historical rule in Turkey, which says (the army protects the constitution and the constitution protects the army), turning it into the rule that says (everything should be ordered by Erdogan), particularly in light of the presidential system of which he built, and declaring himself as a Sultan with absolute authorities.
Despite all of that, the obsession of the coup is always on Erdogan's mind, as he is fully aware of the Turkish military institution, which is the oldest institution in the country since the founding of the Turkish Republic in 1923, where its main slogan is still to protect the secular principles of the Turkish state. This institution was moving and returning to the forefront whenever the ruler of the country wanted to change the state’s identity and its strategic political options, as it happened in Adnan Menderes era. Perhaps, what increases Erdogan's fears, is his regime’s conviction that Rand Corporation’s report was an expression of an orientation in the U.S. foreign policy, and this may explain the ongoing great controversy inside Turkey regarding this report.
In contrast to the conviction of the possibility of a new military coup, there are those who see that the issue doesn't deviate from exploitative tactics by Erdogan himself, with the aim of creating more terror inside Turkey, pushing it to circumvent it after his interventionist policies in Syria and Libya began to portend great repercussions on Turkey, its economy and on its external relations. Therefore, they don't see that the possibility of a military coup is out of the question, especially after the strikes that Erdogan directed to the Turkish military institutions over the past years.
In all cases, whether the possibility of a new military coup in Turkey was real or it was within the framework of Erdogan's exploitation of this matter for his internal consideration, the ongoing controversy in this regard indicates an important issue in the Turkish life, which is the absence of trust between Erdogan and the army, which still considers itself as the first defender of the Ataturk principles, especially since the military doctrine of the Turkish army remains closed to a military structure, which has arisen due to the principles on which it was founded on one hand, and its security relationship historically with the NATO, on the other, which makes it able to move through the political and partisan forces in the street, as it happened in Egypt against Morsi's rule.