On a recent development in Turkey

ANALYSIS-Turkish military vents frustration
By Ralph Boulton

  
ANKARA, Aug 8, 2001 (Reuters) - A withering public attack by Turkey's 
powerful generals on a senior minister appears to reflect a deeper 
exasperation in the military with political leaders struggling to handle 
reform and financial crisis. 

The General Staff issued a long statement on Tuesday night accusing 
Motherland Party leader Mesut Yilmaz of, in effect, seeking to make cheap 
political capital with an attack on the military. Yilmaz had suggested 
political reform in Turkey was constantly blocked by a pervasive "national 
security syndrome." 

The angry tone of the intervention surprised many in Ankara, while in 
Istanbul analysts said it overshadowed markets haunted since February by fear 
of political conflict. Motherland quickly denied Yilmaz had intended a slight 
against the army. 

Any protracted debate between the generals and a senior member of Premier 
Bulent Ecevit's government would do little for markets desperately needing 
the political calm that could ease punishing interest rates and buoy an IMF 
rescue programme. 

The military, seen by many as the ultimate guarantor of stability at times of 
political disarray, said it pursued legitimate concerns in opposing Islamist 
militancy and separatism. It was blunt in denouncing the record of many 
politicians, unnamed, in handling the country's problems. 

"If the Turkish Republic's economy has come to the point of bankruptcy, if 
nothing is being done to those who brought the economy to this point (and) if 
political stability cannot be achieved because of personal ambitions...to 
blame all problems on a 'concept of national security' is not reasonable and 
is not just. At the same time, it is dangerous," the statement said. 

METHOD OF ATTACK 

"Even though one (Yilmaz) happens to occupy a position of responsibility, 
raising this issue in the manner of filing a complaint to the world instead 
of discussing it at legitimate platforms cannot be taken as an honourable 
attitude." 

The tough words read as a broader criticism of a political class and system 
criticised both at home and abroad for its reliance on a mesh of party and 
personal patronage that has pitched the country into massive debt. Only now, 
with harsh domestic debate, is reform a prospect. 

The words stand out after months of military restraint while the country has 
been rocked by a crisis that has slashed the value of the lira by a half and 
put hundreds of thousands out of work. The generals had made it clear they 
did not want to be drawn into political wrangling that has cost the country 
dearly. 

Yilmaz, who has crossed swords with the military on previous occasions over 
corruption in political life, made his remarks on Saturday at a Motherland 
Party congress. 

"Rather than ensuring stability, national security needs are making it 
impossible for us to take steps to ensure our citizens are comfortable and 
proud," said Yilmaz, who oversees relations between the European Union and 
candidate country Turkey. 

Motherland said it was fully behind Yilmaz. 

"In a democratic country the legitimate forum for such discussions is 
politics, therefore political parties are the legitimate interlocutors of 
this debate," the party said. 

"To interpret Yilmaz's words as targeting the armed forces is an exaggerated 
reading," it said. 

Whatever the intention, the General Staff is clearly galled. It will not be 
lectured, least of all in public, by, of all people, Mesut Yilmaz. If there 
is to be such a debate, then he, in the eyes of the generals, is not the man 
to initiate it. 

THE TWIN EVILS 

Yilmaz, prime minister in the 1990s, has few admirers in the General Staff. 
Parliament voted last year not to pursue accusations of abuse of power 
against him over a land deal. 

As minister overseeing efforts to move Turkey towards EU membership talks, 
Yilmaz has seen himself in conflict with conservatives wary of reforms on 
such issues as Kurdish minority rights -- use of Kurdish language in 
broadcasting and education. 

The army ranks among institutions wary such reforms could awaken the "twin 
evils" it has long seen as threatening the country -- Kurdish separatism and 
militant political Islam. It sees such threats as particularly dangerous in a 
country surrounded by potentially enemies and says that justifies a special 
role for the army. 

Thus the "national security syndrome" Yilmaz decried. 

Ismet Berkan, commentator in Radikal newspaper, said Yilmaz had little right 
to complain of national security perceptions he had a hand in forming as 
prime minister. 

"However, none of this justifies the General Staff statement which is of 
unprecedented harshness...It is not the armed forces' job to point out the 
bankrupt economy and corruption in Turkey because it is not a political 
party." 

The Turkish military has four times in 40 years eased governments from power, 
twice in outright coups. To express surprise, as some commentators have done, 
at the military entering the political arena here might seem a bit rum. 

But many find it puzzling that a long reticent General Staff should chose 
this very moment to speak out; a necessary venting, perhaps, of the generals' 
finely honed political valve.