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  • With Its Back to the Wall

    Qantara.de
    March 5 2010


    With Its Back to the Wall



    Following the latest arrests of high-ranking officers in Turkey,
    charged with conspiring to overturn the government, the military is
    coming under increasing pressure. The days when the military pulled
    the strings seem to finally be over, says Jürgen Gottschlich

    | Bild:


    The two arch rivals are squaring off in a battle of wills, yet Prime
    Minister Erdogan is against replacing Chief of the General Staff Ilker
    Basbug, fearing that his successor would not "guarantee a democratic
    ethos."
    | "For decades, they've observed, bugged and kept files on us. Anyone
    whose wife wears a headscarf and who holds conservative opinions came
    under suspicion and was registered. But now it's over. Now we're in
    power and we're going after them."

    When Avni Dogan, a representative of the ruling AK Party, recently
    made this statement, party leaders reacted with great alarm. Avni
    Dogan was reprimanded. A speaker for the party explained that what the
    government undertakes is never motivated by revenge, but rather to
    establish democratic standards.

    Nevertheless, Dogan's words probably echoed in the minds of many Turks
    last week. Across the country, special police units were underway
    apprehending active or pensioned generals and other high-ranking
    members of the military.

    A nightmare for the military

    In a campaign unparalleled in Turkey's history, 49 high-ranking
    officers were arrested, among them nearly the entire General Staff
    from 2003 and 2004. But that was only the beginning. While the current
    Chief of Staff Ilker Basbug maintained a shocked silence ` he had
    evidently not been apprised of the action ` the military men were
    brought before the judge one by one as the nation looked on.

    | Bild:


    After setting the political tone for decades (the army has perpetrated
    four coups against the civil government since 1960), the Turkish
    military has been put on the defensive by a wave of arrests and
    allegations
    | They are all charged with colluding to stage a putsch against
    Erdogan's government. Their plot allegedly included blowing up a
    mosque in order to destabilize the populace, and even shooting down a
    fighter jet over the Aegean to shift blame onto the Greeks.

    On the first days following the arrests a meeting was held between
    Chief of the General Staff Basbug, President Abdullah Gül and Prime
    Minister Tayyip Erdogan. Basbug gave his assurance that the armed
    forces would naturally bow to the judges' decisions.

    As a reward, the three formerly highest-ranking generals were set free
    that same evening. But the nightmare is far from over for Turkey's
    military.

    On Friday last week a new series of arrests were made. And at the
    beginning of this week, Basbug was forced to admit that a previous
    putsch plan, which had already been revealed to the public some time
    ago, was in fact not a fabrication as he had previously maintained,
    but had instead apparently been hatched by members of his own staff.

    Connections to the Ergenekon secret alliance

    Faced with these developments, the military finds itself with its back
    to the wall. Some 50 prominent officers are now in custody following
    last week's arrests. They join additional ex-generals who were already
    apprehended in 2007 and 2008 in the course of the so-called Ergenekon
    investigation.

    Ergenekon is the codename for a secret alliance of members of the
    military, bureaucrats, journalists, professors and judges who all
    shared the common goal of overthrowing the government of the Islamic
    AKP Party.

    A host of special prosecutors throughout the country have been busy
    since mid-2007 hunting this real or alleged network of conspirators.

    Their efforts have involved extensive wiretapping. More than a few
    Turkish intellectuals, for example sociologist and columnist Haluk
    Sahin, lament that the boundary between potential putschists and
    peaceful critics of the government has long since been overstepped. "A
    system of intimidation reigns."

    | Bild:


    Searching for a way out of the crisis: following his three-hour
    meeting with Prime Minister Erdogan and General Basbug, President Gül
    called for loyalty to the constitution in the battle over the
    military's planned putsch
    | While the country held its breath after the first arrests of high
    members of the military, anxiously wondering if tanks would begin
    rolling in response, these fears have long since been allayed.
    Instead, there is now talk of the possible early retirement of Chief
    of the General Staff Ilker Basbug.

    Erdogan is apparently against this move, however, because Basbug's
    designated successor would not "offer any guarantee of a democratic
    ethos."

    Just six months ago, it was inconceivable that a Turkish head of state
    would ever dare to simply send the Chief of the General Staff off into
    early retirement. And today the situation is such that people would
    rather have the acting supreme commander of the military in office
    until satisfactory arrangements can be made to replace him.

    The beginning of a new era

    This spells the end of a 90-year-old institution in the Republic of
    Turkey. The days when the military pulled the strings either openly or
    behind the scenes are over for good. Even Chief of Staff Basbug admits
    that this is so. "The days when the army plotted to overthrow the
    government are over", he said last week.

    Nevertheless, the mood in the country remains cautious. Except for a
    few well-known Islamist commentators, who have greeted the event with
    occasional fanfare, people on the streets are none too thrilled about
    the triumph over the military.

    Spiralling unemployment, fear of job loss and the daily fight against
    declining social standing dominate the daily lives of the majority of
    Turks, who have long suspected that the power struggles between
    Islamists and Kemalists only serve to distract attention from the
    country's real problems.

    A different attitude prevails amongst intellectuals, artists, writers
    and cultural producers. While some, such as editor-in-chief of
    "Taraf", Ahmet Altan, or the successor to Hrant Dink as editorial
    director of the Armenian-Turkish newspaper "Agos", Etyen Mahçupyan,
    vehemently defend the democratic achievements of the AKP government,
    others fear that their country has jumped from the frying pan into the
    fire.

    Under the sharp eye of the Islamic moral guardians

    One of them is Ã-zen Yula, author and script analyst. "I fear for my
    life", he said through a speaker for Istanbul's off theatre "Kumbaraci
    50" last week. Ã-zan Yula is the author of piece whose name means:
    "Lick It Up, But Don't Swallow It".

    The play was to have its premiere in recent days, but was cancelled
    when Yula and the other members of the ensemble received massive
    threats. The piece is about an angel who tries to find one good human
    being on earth. The angel appears as an impoverished housewife who
    supplements her income by acting in porno films.

    That sufficed to prompt the Islamist daily paper "Vakit" to launch a
    regular hate campaign, demanding that the performance be banned on the
    grounds that pious Muslims were appalled at the filthy show.

    In reaction, the AKP-led district administration of Beyoglu had the
    theatre locked up, under the pretext that fire protection regulations
    had not been observed. A prominent television moderator took up the
    story and stirred up so much public pressure that the district office
    was forced to back-pedal. Nevertheless, fearing for the lives and
    limbs of the actors, the theatre's managers ultimately cancelled the
    piece.

    The fate of this theatre is symptomatic of a much wider problem. Art
    showing naked skin encounters major problems in today's Turkey. Even
    the producers of the country's most popular television series have had
    to come to grips with the new moral climate. The hit soap "AÅ?k-ı
    Memnu" (Forbidden Love) has also been licensed to the neighbouring
    Arab countries, where it has attained somewhat of a cult status.

    "Forbidden Love" on the index

    | Bild:


    A thorn in the eye of Islamic guardians of public virtue: "AÅ?k-ı
    Memnu" (Forbidden Love), Turkey's biggest hit television series
    | After Islamist clerics in countries including Saudi Arabia demanded
    that the show be banned, Turkey is now also considering putting
    "Forbidden Love" on the index. The series, which is about a man who
    falls in love with his sister-in-law, undermines the country's family
    values, the new Family Minister, Aliye Kavaf, recently criticised.
    Since then the RTÃ`K media authority has been looking into censoring
    the series.

    The cultural battle between a society struggling for its freedom and
    increasingly influential religious groups and parties is not limited
    to theatre, film and television, though.

    Last summer, visitors to a popular seaside bar in Istanbul's Moda
    district were surprised to discover that beer and all other alcoholic
    beverages had vanished from the menu overnight. The bar had been
    leased by a ferry company, which put a stop to the sale of alcohol.

    Angry beer protest

    While in other places such prohibitions have been silently accepted,
    this move led to an uproar in the Western-oriented city district of
    Moda. For weeks, demonstrators strode back and forth before the bar,
    beer in hand, and demanded the right to drink alcohol in their free
    time in this beautiful setting. As reply, the police arrived and beat
    up protesters so many times that eventually no one dared come back.

    All the same, Istanbul is still a cesspool of vice in the eyes of many
    Islamic zealots. In most Anatolian towns it is impossible to obtain a
    liquor license at all anymore. Major cities such as Konya or Kayseri
    are practically "dry".

    In view of such developments, even longstanding AKP supporters are
    growing sceptical. One of them is columnist Mustafa Akyol, who has
    always defended the government's decisions. Two days ago he wrote: "I
    think that the political culture of the AKP is tending more and more
    toward authoritarianism. A Turkey under the complete domination of the
    AKP will therefore not be cheerful, free or democratic."

    Jürgen Gottschlich

    http://www.qantara.de/webcom/show_art icle.php/_c-476/_nr-1299/i.html
    From: Baghdasarian
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