Civil-Military Relations During the AK Party Era: Major Developments and Challenges

Abstract:

The remarkable transformation of Turkish civil-military relations since the AK Party’s rise to power has not led to total democratization in this area. Although EU reforms reduced the military‘s formal and informal powers and trials about contemporary and historic coup cases might indicate that the military has been subordinated to civilian authority, achieving democratic civil-military relations would require a balance of power between civilians and the military: While the military must relinquish its role as the country’s guardians, civilians must work to regain the trust of military officers that they lost through the Ergenekon and Balyoz cases. Perhaps then Turkish civil-military relations can reach a democratic level, promoting democratic consolidation in the country.