Turkish graft probe fuels tension between the army and civilians

By Claudia Parsons

ANKARA (Reuters): When generals talk in Turkey, politicians sit up and listen.

When the army complains of "serious discomfort" and accuses a politician of slander, it is a sign of mounting tension in the fragile balance between the military and civilians in a country that has lived through three coups since 1960.

"The system is stumbling," commentator Hasan Cemal wrote in Milliyet daily. Most other newspapers devoted their front pages to the latest statements by the army, with banner headlines such as: The outrage of the military and High tension.

The role of the military has increasingly come under the microscope since 1999 when Turkey became a candidate to join the European Union, which is uncomfortable with soldiers in politics.

The trigger for the latest tension between politicians and soldiers was a corruption investigation at the energy ministry in which seven senior officials and one businessman have so far been detained. Official sources say the probe can be expected to spread through the political establishment.

The army denies it initiated the probe but the issue has crystallized in public opinion as a case of the military cracking down on corrupt politicians.

"The military seems to have realized that much of Turkey's problems stem from what we call the corrupt economic system," said Prof. Hasan Unal of Ankara's Bilkent university.

"There's a corruption investigation now with one of these cases but my hunch is these cases may shake the whole system and as a result the hierarchy of politicians may be accused of corruption, and many of them know that," Unal said.

The probe is being spearheaded by the gendarmerie, a paramilitary police force linked to both the interior ministry and the General Staff. It reports to the ministry but the military has considerable influence over its leadership.

Deputy Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz blasted the military this week after press reports said military officials had launched the probe without government knowledge.

The energy ministry is controlled by Yilmaz's wing of Turkey's three-party coalition government.

The response of the General Staff was to issue a strongly worded statement denying any link to the corruption probe and accusing Yilmaz of "the greatest slander". It said that linking the probe to the army had caused "serious discomfort".

The General Staff and, it must be said, many civilians see the army as a pivotal force guarding against the "twin evils" of religious militancy and separatism. Opinion polls regularly show trust in the army is far higher than confidence in politicians.

Yilmaz called the probe an assault on the authority of civilian politicians and said a military regime would be more corrupt than any civilian government.

Justice Minister Hikmet Sami Turk stepped into the controversy last Friday, saying the armed forces should stay out of day-to- day political debates.

Cemal wrote in Milliyet newspaper that the tension highlighted serious flaws in the structure of the state.

"A system where the military and the civilians are so overtly vying and where such mistrust exists between the two can be said to be stumbling," he said. "In a system that is stumbling like this, it is impossible to speak of political stability which is the basis for everything."

Relations between civilian governments and the Turkish military are traditionally sensitive, partly because the role given by the constitution to the armed forces in preserving Turkey's secular system widens their area of responsibility.

Just three years ago the army played a leading role in easing out Turkey's first Islamist-led government because of concerns about mild reforms it feared would undermine the secular order.

Recai Kutan, the leader of the main Islamist opposition party Virtue, said the current tension between the military and politicians was reminiscent of the period in 1997 before Virtue's predecessor, the Welfare Party, was pushed out.

But leading commentator Mehmet Ali Birand said Turkey had changed radically even since 1997 -- a fact most clearly demonstrated by the fact that the army, previously untouchable, was now being criticized openly by politicians and the media.

"Nobody is afraid about a coup d'etat, that's out of the question," Birand said.

"The military is now acting like a political party... We're not talking about the kind of relationship we had 10 years ago between politicians and military."

Birand said the tension essentially boiled down to a struggle over the European Union and what changes Turkey will have to make in order to join the bloc.

"On the one hand the military is resisting some changes and on the other the politicians are trying to be more liberal, and the military know that they are going to lose power," he said.

"The politicians and the military are discussing what kind of Turkey we are going to have, and who is going to run it."