TURKEY's powerful generals are feeling unprecedented pressure, cornered by what they see as Islamist enemies bent on dividing the military and their once formidable influence in public life cut by EU-inspired reforms. A spat over an alleged plot by the secularist military to undermine the Islamist-rooted AK Party government has exposed a rivalry between elites. An angry outburst by the country's top general – “Take your hands off the armed forces!” – illustrates the depth of frustration of the men in uniform. “The military is completely lost in its reaction to the changes around it,” said Cengiz Aktar, a professor at Istanbul's Bahcesehir University who is often critical of the army. “They used to be unaccountable but are having a hard time in handling the process of normalization of civilian-military ties. They will suffer more. There is nothing they can do but adapt to the new rules,” Aktar said. Turkey's military, which has ousted four governments in 50 years in the predominantly Muslim European Union candidate country, regards itself as the last bulwark against political Islam trying to subvert the republic's secular principles. That role is now being questioned, strained by reforms aimed at meeting EU membership criteria and as a rising middle class of religious-minded Turks that have moved into positions of power under the AK Party challenge the old secularist elite. A document published by a liberal newspaper earlier this month alleging a military conspiracy against the AK Party and the religious movement of Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen has raised new tensions between the government and the military, which has seen its prestige blemished by the row. Few see a risk of the military staging a coup. The AK Party enjoys wide popular support and a military intervention would demolish the image of an institution whose power and privilege is already waning. In a sign of democratic maturity, financial markets have so far reacted calmy but investors are following developments closely as Turkey has a long history of political instability. “This settling of accounts won't end up easily,” wrote Mehmet Ali Birand, a leading commentator. “It is not clear where and when this escalation will end.” ‘Psychological war' Military chief General Ilker Basbug last week denounced the plot report as a smear campaign to split the armed forces. Wagging his finger during a news conference broadcast live, a visibly angry Basbug said NATO's second-largest army was facing an “asymmetric war” conducted through the media. Basbug did not name any group but secularists are suspicious the Gulen movement may be behind the document to discredit the armed forces and goad it into a fight with the government. The Gulen movement and the secularist establishment of military, judicial and academic elite have long been at odds. Gulen gleans much of his support from a rising group of religious-minded professionals who are the same people who helped sweep the Islamist-rooted AK Party to power in 2002. Secularists, who suspect Gulen of wanting to train a cadre of people to run a future Islamic state, believe followers in the police and courts are driving a separate investigation into the right-wing “Ergenekon” network suspected of planning a coup. “Everything we are witnessing is part of a psychological war. The Turkish armed forces is on one side and the Gulen movement on the other,” Ismet Berkan, editor of Radikal, a secularist daily, recently wrote in a column. Gareth Jenkins, an Istanbul-based military analyst, said the military was at a crossroads. Past army interventions aimed at blocking the AK Party from taking state institutions including the presidency have backfired, but many in the ranks feel their old rivals are now out to get them. “The military doesn't want to run the country as in the past, but they feel they are being attacked. The problem they have is that they can't be too aggressive against the government because who is going to replace the AK Party? Their best chance is to hold on to what they have,” Jenkins said. Europe The AK Party's use of its parliamentary majority to pass EU-inspired reforms to cut back the power of the military has also raised suspicions among hard-line secularists the AK Party wants to weaken the army's role as guardian against Islamism. The AK Party denies this. Analysts said Basbug, halfway through his two-year tenure, will need to show tact in upholding the military's prestige while avoiding an open clash with the government. Retired general Kenan Evren, who led a 1980 military coup, was quoted last week as saying he would rather commit suicide than be tried by a civilian court if changes to the constitution under discussion pave the way for such a trial. Jenkins, the military analyst, said the two camps will eventually need to find an accomodation. “The process of pushing the military towards EU standards has to be done without provoking the military. The last thing Turkey wants is a demoralized army. Government and military have to get along in a normal country,” he said.
