Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Akademik Hassasiyetler, cilt.8, sa.16, ss.115-149, 2021 (TRDizin)
The Turkish army’s role in politics has always been a controversial case fordemocratisation. Yet, the events of the AK Party rule (2002–2021) have witnessedunprecedented developments in this regard. In its first term, the AK Party carriedout important civil–military reforms that were essential for a democratic civil– military framework. However, the optimistic environment that existed in the verybeginning was later broken through a number of events, including the 2007 ‘e memorandum’, the Ergenekon trials and the 15 July attempted coup by the Gülenistreligious community (FETÖ). Some measures were taken following thesedevelopments, such as adopting the presidential system in a referendum that wascarried out in 2017. Also, the state of emergency rules (OHAL – Olağanüstü HalKararları) were introduced, which brought important amendments regarding civil– military relations to increase a civilian monitoring over the military to eliminateGülenists. Yet, several claims are made about the gradual penetration of otherIslamist groups replacing the vacated positions of the Gülenists as well as excessivecivilian control by denying Huntington’s objective and professional model. At thispoint, by relying on the above-mentioned allegations, this paper aims to understandif there is democratic depoliticisation in the military as assumed by Huntington’sobjective model. Or rather, is there an increasing Islamisation within the militarythat enables the AK Party to subordinate it into its reputed partisan interests bymaking it a mirror of the ruling party as assumed by the subjective model ofHuntington.