June 6, 2003	Friday	Rabi-us-Sani 5, 1424

ANKARA: Turkey’s powerful generals are living through anxious times, distrustful of a government with pro-religious roots and wary of liberal reforms it plans to open the gates of the EU.

The “Pashas”, authors of three coups in 40 years, clearly see in some reforms a potential weapon to subvert the state and weaken their role as guardian against separatism and fundamentalism. That role is already under unprecedented scrutiny at home and by an EU demanding strict subordination of military to civilians.

“The army is at a turning point,” said one diplomat. “They certainly don’t want to be portrayed as obstacles on the path to the EU. But at the same time it deeply disturbs them that the reforms are being championed by this of all governments.”

A key pillar of the army’s power, its close alliance with the US military, has been shaken by Turkey’s refusal to allow US troops to invade Iraq from Turkey. Pentagon officials saw in this a failure of generals to press their case with Ankara.

Deputy armed forces head Yasar Buyukanit denied suggestions the army opposed EU entry, fearing a waning of power and privilege. The army itself led the way on Western-style reform:

“Those who see the European Union’s high values as a means to their archaic and separatist aims will be disappointed.”

A conservative newspaper brought a simmering debate to the boil with a headline to chill Turks with memories of 1960.

“Young Officers Are Uneasy”, declared Cumhuriyet.

It was young officers, largely colonels, who overthrew Prime Minister Adnan Menderes 43 years ago.

The issue ended for Menderes on the gallows. For the army too it was a traumatic affair, dividing the officer corps.

Cumhuriyet said today’s young officers saw the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government, while publicly embracing Western values, seeding the state bureaucracy with religious elements.

“If there’s irritation in the armed forces, that irritation isn’t confined to a certain portion,” Armed Forces Chief Hilmi Ozkok said.”It’s in the whole of the armed forces.”

A blunt message for AKP Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan.

MASSAGING THE GENERALS: Generals learned from 1960 and a 1980 coup that military rule undermines discipline and prestige. With a 1983 return to civilian rule, voters humiliated an army-backed candidate.

“I don’t want this word (coup) to be pronounced in this place,” Ozkok told a briefing at forces headquarters.

The AKP, which swept November elections amid anger with mainstream parties over corruption and misrule, sees no parallel between public criticism and a military-led campaign that toppled Turkey’s only pro-religious premier in 1997.

That process, for its absence of tanks or military interregnum, has become known here as the “post-modern coup”.

The AKP advocates legal changes allowing foreign observers at elections, clearing foreign language, including Kurdish, broadcasts and allowing prayer meetings in private buildings.

AKP would also ease freedom of expression by scrapping part of an anti-terrorism law rooted in the Kurdish separatist conflict of the 1980s and 1990s.

The next reforms to qualify Turkey by the end of 2004 for EU entry talks could tackle the powers of the armed forces themselves.

The army’s progress to understanding the EU is dogged by notions of a patrician state. It is wary of politicians and of a population so fickle as to elect the very man, Erdogan, it rejected above all others.

Some see this as a symptom of weakness in civil society.

The generals view the EU still with suspicion.

Commanders accuse EU countries of aiding Kurdish rebels by not outlawing their groupings and many deem Europe naive in its benign assessment of AKP intentions. The militant establishment takes a tough line on EU efforts to settle the Cyprus issue.—Reuters