Civil-military relations in Turkey: Two patterns of civilian behaviour towards the military

Article abstract:

This article analyses two notable behavioural patterns of the Turkish leadership towards the military in the multiparty period. One of these patterns is the exercise of civilian control that disregards soldiers' sensibilities. The second pattern is the propensity to involve the military in day-to-day politics and, at the same time, the selective condemnation of the military's intrusions into daily governmental affairs. No single variable is sufficient to explain what underlies these patterns. Ideologies, orientations, styles of governing, and the decisions of the civilians, as well as the disposition of the military, are to be taken into consideration. One should not, particularly, overlook the effect of the troubling advent of a pattern of civil-military relations that nourished a pervasive sense of powerlessness among civilians.