For Turkey’s hard-line secularists it spelled a humiliating end to Ataturk’s republic. For their detractors it was an irreversible victory for democracy. Either way, the mass resignation of Turkey’s military leadership on July 29th captured the dramatic shift in power that has been taking place ever since the conservative Justice and Development (AK) party took office nine years ago. The once-omnipotent army, which has toppled four governments since 1960, no longer calls the shots.
Keeping the generals out of politics is a must. But what of the army’s day job? With 12% of serving generals and admirals in prison, notes Eric Edelman, a former American ambassador to Turkey and number two at the Pentagon under George Bush junior, “the Turkish military gives every sign of being a broken and rudderless institution.” He expresses concerns about the effects of a weakened Turkish army, the second-biggest in NATO, on the alliance, and on Turkey’s region. Turkey is better off with a depoliticised army; but a weak army would do its regional ambitions no good at all.