Democratic control of Turkish Armed Forces gains ground

The Turkish government’s steadfast rejection of its own army’s moves of self-interest and its self-defensive reflexes against a background of suspected generals who were ordered to be arrested in an ongoing investigation may signal that the democratic control of the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) could be firmly settling itself in the Turkish political landscape.

“We are not the first country to try [to join the EU with a military-drafted constitution]. Spain, Portugal and Greece all applied for membership, but their membership processes sped up only after they changed their constitutions to civilian ones,” Egemen Bağış, Turkey’s chief negotiator for EU talks, said. “Our real EU process will begin in earnest on Sept. 12. It will be a turning point not only for Turkey but also for our EU process.”

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