Civil–military relations during the Recep Tayyip Erdoğan government

During the , civil–military relationship moved towards normalization in which the influence of the military was reduced. During its nine-year reign, the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AK Party, has often faced off against the military, gaining political power by challenging a pillar of the country’s laicistic establishment.

The ruling party, which came to power following the November 3, 2002 general elections, is not the first government to have tangled with the military in Turkey, where the powerful Turkish Armed Forces, or TSK, has periodically carried out coups d’état since the 1960s. But the shift in the balance of power in civil-military ties has been one of the most important changes the AK Party has made to Turkey’s political landscape.

Under the party’s tenure, the military, while it remains suspicious of the motives of the AK Party, has become much less enthusiastic about making public statements on political issues and more cooperative in efforts to further align Turkey’s standards to those of the European Union even when such moves would curb the TSK’s own powers.

The following persons served as Chief of the General Staff between 2002 and 2011:

Since the first AK Party government in late 2002, the military, which sees itself as the guardian of the laicistic, democratic and republican Turkish state, monitored what it saw as a “pro-Islamic party” aiming to undermine the country’s laicistic regime. The military had successfully challenged the Islamic Welfare Party in 1996, overthrowing the government of prime minister Necmettin Erbakan following the months-long struggle known as the February 28 process. The process resulted in Erbakan’s resignation from the government and the dissolution of his party by the Constitutional Court.

In the 2000s, however, the political landscape was not as favorable for military influence in politics. The first reason for this shift was the European Union membership process, which nurtured the notion of democratization in the country; another was the election victory of the AK Party that brought this “democratic conservative party” a clear majority in Parliament in 2002. Having seen what the political choices of many of its members led to in the past, the AK Party resolved to be firm in confronting the military this time around.

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Wikipedia