National Security Council (Turkey)

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Per the article 118 of the Turkish Constitution, the National Security Council (Turkish: Milli Güvenlik Kurulu (MGK)) is set up as an advisory organ, comprised of the Chief of General Staff and the four main Commanders of the Turkish Armed Forces and select members of the Council of Ministers, to develop the "national security policy of the state" of the Turkish Republic.

Contents 1 The role of the military in Turkish politics 2 History of the National Security Council 3 Recent reforms in the National Security Council 4 Criticisms from the European Union 5 See also 6 External links 7 References

The role of the military in Turkish politics

The MGK is widely perceived as the institutionalisation of the Turkish military’s influence over politics. Since Mustafa Kemal Atatürk founded the modern secular republic of Turkey in 1923, the Turkish military has perceived itself as guardians of the Kemalism, the official state ideology, even though Atatürk himself insisted separating the military from politics.^[1]

Though the attitude of the military may have remained constant, the attitude of the successive civilian governments toward the military has fluctuated. "In Turkey, for a long time, there have been two notable behavioral patterns on the part of civilian governments in their relations with the military: they have either tried to relegate the military to the sidelines or they have granted it too much autonomy." When the civilian government was successful in solving economic problems and internal disputes and "had the upper hand," sometimes as in the 1950s, the civilian government "tried to divest the military of all authority" and the government and military officers became "hostile adversaries."^[2]

As a result of these fluctuations in relationship, there have been two direct coups d’états in 1960 and 1980, the 1971 coup by memorandum, and what later has been labelled a post modern coup, when Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan from the pro-Islamic Welfare Party stepped down after mounting pressure from the military in 1997.^[3] Paradoxically, the military has both been an important force in Turkey’s continuous Westernization but at the same time also consisted an obstacle for Turkey’s desire to join the EU. At the same time, the military enjoys a high degree of popular legitimacy; with continuous opinion polls suggesting that the military is the state institution that the Turkish people trust the most.^[4].

The chief of general staff, Yaşar Büyükanıt has asserted that certain EU and NATO-allied countries, consciously allowed terrorist organizations acting against Turkey, to base and run operations in their own territories, inconsistent with the philosophy of Turkey’s international alliance with those countries. He accused these countries of failing to prosecute these terrorists, implicitly assisting them to escape justice or return safely to their organizations to continuing terror, and sometimes even openly taking sides with them under the banner of "freedom of speech" ^[5]. These allegations are the latest in a series of events that have led the Turkish authorities to doubt the good-will of certain allied countries, the latest example being Greece giving refuge to Ocalan, the leader of the Kurdish PKK, an organization that has been listed as terrorist by the EU and the US, and that aims to create a separate country in Turkey using violence, by aiding him with his transportation before his capture by Turkish forces in May, 1999 while leaving the Greek Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya ^[6].

History of the National Security Council

The creation of the MGK was an outcome of the military coup in 1960, and has been a part of the constitution since 1961. In this way the 1961 constitution created what the Turkish scholar Sakallioğlu labels "a double headed political system: the civilian council of ministers coexisted with the national security council on the executive level, and the military system of justice continued to operate independently alongside the civilian justice system." ^[7] The role of the MGK was further strengthened with the 1982 constitution, adopted by the military junta in the aftermath of the 1980 military coup, before transferring power to civilian politicians. From now on its recommendations would be given priority consideration by the council of ministers. Furthermore, the number and weight of senior commanders in MGK increased at the expense of its civilian members.^[8] In 1992 then chief of general staff Gen. Doğan Güreş proclaimed self-confidently that Turkey is a military state ^[9].

Recent reforms in the National Security Council

In order to meet EU's political demands for starting membership negotiations, the Copenhagen criteria, Turkey has passed a number of reforms aiming at strengthening civil control over the military. These reforms have mainly focussed on the MGK, its duties, functioning and composition. On 23 July 2003 the Turkish Grand National Assembly (Türkiye Büyük Millet Meclisi – TBMM) passed the so called seventh reform package, which exactly aimed at limiting the role of the military, through reforms of the MGK. According to an editorial in the Financial Times the reforms passed with the 7th reform package constitutes nothing less than a ‘quiet revolution’ .^[10]

Firstly it is now underlined, that MGK is a consultative body, now with a civilian majority. The 7th reform package made it possible to appoint a civilian Secretary General of MGK, which happened for the first time in August 2004. The council has not anymore expanded executive and monitoring authorities, and has for instance not any more the authority on behalf of the president and the prime minister to follow up on the implementation of MGK’s ‘recommendations’. In addition, MGK has not anymore unlimited access to all civil institutions. MGK does no longer have a representative in the Supervision Board of Cinema, Video and Music. It was however still represented in civil institution such as the High Board for Radio and TV (RTÜK) and the Commission for higher educations (YÖK), but after critics in the 2003 European Commission report this representation was withdrawn from both institutions in 2004.^[11]

Criticisms from the European Union

Despite the impressive institutional changes, the 2004 European Commission report concludes that "Although the process of aligning civil-military relations with EU practice is underway, the Armed Forces in Turkey continue to exercise influence through a series of informal channels."^[12] In the Commission report of the following year it was stated that: "Reforms concerning civil-military relations have continued, but the armed forces still exert significant influence by issuing public statements on political developments and government policies."^[13]

See also

Accession of Turkey to the European Union

Politics of Turkey

Turkish Armed Forces

Military coup in Turkey, 1960

Military coup in Turkey, 1971

Turkish military coup, 1980

External links

• Official website of the National Security Council (Turkish and limited English information)
• European Commission 2005 Progress Report on Turkey (pdf)
• The History of MKG in its own words

References