The deadlock over the appointment of the top commanders demonstrates the continuing shift from military to civilian, but reinforces concerns about the AKP's commitment to the rule of law, says Gareth Jenkins in Istanbul In the early hours of Monday morning, Turkish President Abdullah Gul formally ratified the appointment of the next chief of staff and land forces commander, putting an end to a week of wrangling between the military and the civilian government. Although the immediate crisis has now been resolved, the incident has seriously damaged the already fragile relations between the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Turkish high command. More disturbingly, it has also reinforced growing concerns about the rule of law in Turkey and the abuse of judicial processes for ideological ends. Turkey's Supreme Military Council (YAS) meets at the beginning of August each year to decide appointments and promotions in the military for the next 12 months. Most of the members of YAS are serving four-star generals although meetings are chaired by the prime minister and all of the appointments have to be approved by the government and the president before they take effect. In practice, the de facto autonomy of the Turkish military has meant that civilian governments have tended to avoid challenging any appointments or promotions and merely rubberstamped the lists put before them by the generals. The AKP has long been aware that the fiercely secular military is the main obstacle to their plans to change the traditional interpretation of secularism in Turkey. Some AKP officials, including several ministers, are also motivated by a desire for revenge as they were members of the Islamist Welfare Party (RP), which was forced from office by a military-orchestrated campaign in 1997. Since the AKP was re- elected by a landslide in July 2007, pro-AKP public prosecutors and journalists have accused members of the military of being involved in a string of alleged coup attempts and membership of clandestine networks responsible for acts of political violence in Turkey over the last 20 years and of manipulating armed militant groups active in the country, including leftists, Islamists and even the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). No convincing evidence has yet been produced to support any of the allegations and critics dismiss many of the claims are so absurd and self-contradictory that they undermine the credibility of those making them. The latest alleged plot was published in a pro- AKP newspaper in January this year. It claims that a routine seminar held in Istanbul in March 2003 and attended by 162 serving members of the military was part of a plot, allegedly codenamed Sledgehammer, to stage a military coup in spring 2003. However, not only have all 162 participants in the seminar vigorously denied any knowledge of a coup but there are serious doubts about much of the evidence produced to support the claims, not least because some of the documents which were allegedly plans for a coup in spring 2003 refer to events in 2005, 2006 and 2009. On the morning of 23 July 2010, a Turkish journalist asked a military official whether those accused of being members of the Sledgehammer plot could be promoted at the YAS meeting, which was due to begin on 1 August. He replied that, under Turkish law, the only obstacle to them being promoted was if they had been arrested or convicted. On the evening of 23 July, pro-AKP prosecutors issued arrest warrants for 102 of the 162 officers who had attended the seminar in March 2003. Their lawyers immediately appealed, arguing that their clients were not fugitives and that the first hearing in the Sledgehammer case was not scheduled until mid-December. Normally, verdicts in such appeals are issued within a few days. However, the presiding judges delayed reaching a decision until after the YAS meeting had concluded on 4 August. As a result, none of those named in the arrest warrants could be promoted. On Sunday, the presiding judges upheld the appeals and the arrest warrants were cancelled. In announcing their verdict, the judges argued that the prosecutors had not produced any evidence to justify the warrants. But the judges failed to explain why it had taken them two weeks to reach such a decision. As the YAS meeting had already ended, the verdict came too late for those named in the warrants to be reconsidered for promotion. More disturbing was the timing of the judicial investigation against General Hassan Igsiz, who had been expected to be appointed as land forces commander to replace General Isik Kosaner, who in turn was due to be promoted to chief of staff. In April 2009, an anonymous letter had been published alleging that General Hasan Igsiz had been involved in the creation of a number of anti-AKP websites. Unlike the allegations of coup plots and controlling violent militant groups, the accusations were at least plausible. The Turkish military -- together with the National Intelligence Service (MIT) -- is known to have conducted overt and covert propaganda campaigns against perceived security threats, including Islamists, Kurdish nationalists and the claims of Greek and Armenian nationalists. However, the accusations were denied by the Turkish military and no action was taken. On 2 August, as YAS was discussing the appointment of the next land forces commander, a pro-AKP prosecutor summoned Igsiz to give evidence as a suspect relating to the accusations about the Internet sites. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan promptly refused to ratify Igsiz's appointment on the grounds that he was a suspect in a criminal case. The military refused to put forward another candidate. In order to increase the pressure on the military, Erdogan also refused to ratify the appointment of General Kosaner as the next chief of staff. As a result, the YAS meeting ended on 4 August without any agreement on either the next land forces commander of the chief of staff. Eventually, after a series of late night meetings between Erdogan and the current Chief of Staff General Ilker Basbug, a compromise was reached. Igsiz was sent into retirement and the military put forward General Erdal Ceylanoglu as an alternative candidate for land forces commander. The appointments of both Ceylanoglu as land forces commander and Kosaner as chief of staff were formally approved by President Gul in the early hours of Monday morning. The AKP's success in imposing its will on the Turkish military by blocking Igsiz's appointment demonstrates the shift in power to the civilian government. But it has reinforced growing concerns about the nature of AKP rule. It is difficult enough to believe that the timing of the issuing of the Sledgehammer warrants so close to the YAS meeting was mere coincidence. The timing of the summons issued to Igsiz makes it virtually impossible. The AKP's sensitivity to legal processes was called into further question by the announcement on Monday of the results of the privatisation tenders for electricity distribution in Izmir and the European side of Istanbul. Both were sold, for a combined total of nearly $5 billion, to a consortium headed by a personal associate of Erdogan and a businessman called Mehmet Emin Karamehmet who, in February this year, was convicted of embezzlement and sentenced to 11 years in jail.
