Erdogan and the battle for liberation from the military constitution

Liberation from the legacy of the military rule in Turkey is a battle that has been ongoing since the 1960s in a generally calm and gradual manner. However, it turned more radical when the Justice and Development Party came to power in 2002. Since then, and until the announcement of the recent parliamentary election results, this battle witnessed a number of intense rounds which succeeded in containing the military, along with its media, judicial and educational wings, by means of a series of constitutional amendments and political, security and media campaigns.

The most prominent weapon used to eliminate the legacy of the military is a series of constitutional amendments. These were not the main goal, which has always been completely eliminating the 1982 constitution currently being followed. This constitution was adopted after Ahmet Kenan Evren’s coup in 1980. The goal of drafting a new civilian constitution was not only sought by the Islamists, but also by all the secular political parties, as they all recognise how deformed the constitution is and how it reinforces the rule of the deep military state.

After the announcement of the recent parliamentary election results, which the Justice and Development Party (AKP) won by a comfortable majority that allowed it to form a government on its own, the Turkish president and AKP founder, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, renewed his call for the adoption of a new constitution in place of Evren’s. This call was made in the context of Erdogan’s quest to rid the country of the legacy of military rule, which began with General Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and his coup against the civilian rule of the Ottoman Empire, and ended with Erdogan’s predecessor, Ahmet Necdet Sezer, who was the last president during the military era. Erdogan took advantage of Turkey’s desire to join the European Union, which has presented the government in Ankara with a list of demands and conditions in order to be accepted as a member; these include safeguarding rights, freedoms and the rule of law, and the distancing of the military from politics.

Confronting the legacy of the military era and the deep state in Turkey is no mean feat, as it almost ousted the AKP and four other Islamist parties before it (the National Order Party, the National Salvation Party, the Welfare Party and the Virtue Party, all of which were founded by the late leader Necmettin Erbakan); it also crushed many other parties. It is worth noting that Erdogan himself was a prisoner for some time and was also banned from carrying out political activities until his party managed to secure a constitutional amendment that allowed him to return to politics in 2002. It is also worth noting that the AKP was under attack in 2008 based on claims of its deviation from secular values, and if it were not for some gradual political and judicial reforms that were made by the party previously, then it would have been fated to be dissolved and its assets liquidated. The Constitutional Court ruled by just one vote to preserve the party but prohibit it from government support.

The constitutional amendments made by the AKP in 2002, 2004, 2008 and 2010 have managed to defang the military so far and strip it of the political power which allowed it, quite legally, to intervene with military coups against any civilian government the generals did not like under the pretext that they were “deviating” from secular values. The military tried to repeat these coups against Erdogan and his party in 2003, 2007 and 2008, in what became known as the “Sledgehammer” plot and the “Ergenekon” plot, also called the “invisible inner state”. However, the party was in control to the extent that it uncovered the coup attempts and put the leaders on trial, sentencing them to life or lengthy terms of imprisonment. This convinced the military leadership to back down from other coup plots.

When the AKP announced during the election last June that it would be adopting a plan to draft a new constitution, the opposition responded; backed by the deep state — including some remnants of the Ergenekon plot — opposition groups promoted the idea that the amendments aimed to switch the government to a presidential system in order to please Erdogan, who is aspiring to be a new age sultan. This was repeated by Western and Arab media outlets opposed to Erdogan.

However, the truth lies in the desire to completely eliminate the remnants of military rule which the current constitution, adopted since 1980, still centres around. The AKP got the message from the electorate in the June election when it failed to win a comfortable majority and was forced to hold a new poll. The Turkish people told the party not to rush into the constitutional matter without coming to a consensus with the other political parties.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu used his recent victory speech to send many reassuring messages to all of the country’s forces that he would discuss the major issues with them, despite having won a parliamentary majority. As such, the AKP is not expected to seek to impose constitutional change through the parliament, where it only needs 50 votes, which it can secure by reaching an understanding with one of the other parties. Instead, it will seek to conduct a discussion across society regarding the new constitution, with the aim of building a large support base before putting the matter to a public referendum.

Translated from Arabi21, 9 November 2015.

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