ANKARA — Turkey's ruling pro-Islamic party was expected to increase
controls over the military.
The Justice and Development Party has indicated that it would seek to
reduce the influence of the military
over Turkey's government. The pro-Islamic party, winning a huge majority in
parliamentary elections in July 22, has portrayed the elections as a mandate
for civilian government authority.
"In the July 22 election, our people showed that politics must be
conducted only by political actors," Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Ali Sahin
said. "In Turkey, politicians do the politics."
Also In This Edition
Sahin, in a televised news conference, did not specify the military. But
officials and analysts said the reference was to the pressure by the
military's General Staff on the government of Prime Minister Recep Erdogan
in 2007.
The Erdogan government has confronted an increasingly strident General
Staff, particularly Chief of Staff Gen. Yassar Buyukanit. The military has
warned of creeping Islamization in what it regards as secular Turkey.
The confrontation has focused on the election of a new president. The
Justice and Development Party, or AKP, has nominated Foreign Minister
Abdullah Gul, opposed by President Ahmet Sezer, a former senior military
officer.
AKP was also expected to increase government authority in deciding
procurement for the military. The General Staff has maintained strained
relations with the Defense Industry Undersecretariat, which has rejected
U.S. defense contractors for their inability to guarantee coproduction and
technology transfer as part of major weapons deals.
The Erdogan government was also expected to stiffen resistance to the
military's demand for an invasion of Iraq. The General Staff has been
clamoring for a massive military operation that would eliminate bases of the
Kurdish Workers Party in the Kandil mountains of northern Iraq.
"Our people always react to every kind of attitude that could be
interpreted as intervention in politics," Sahin said.
