By Jaime Ortega.
Although the threat of any military coup riots seems distant , the Army , with many critics of Erdogan in their ranks, has not hidden the anger with the Turkish government on the drift of recent days . The Turkish armed forces have been posting on its website statements promising to ” monitor closely all developments [on corruption ] for our corporate identity and legal position of our members .”
Former Admiral Türker Ertürk , who spent 31 years in the Navy before resigning for any ” psychological pressure ” , explained yesterday WORLDWIDE what the army really feels about such problems. ” Only the military leadership is faithful to the Government. Bases , which remain ideologically nationalist and secular , are unhappy with Prime Minister [avowed Islamist ]” .
The text of the armed forces tried to calm the tension insinuating any discomfort . This same explanation is apparent from a casual conversation between Tayyip Erdogan and Chief of General Staff Necdet Özel , published yesterday by the newspaper ‘ Türkiye ‘ . According to the newspaper , Özel maintained its commitment to not interfere in politics. But once he realized the uneasiness of some troops , unlike previous cases against them , this time the government will do everything they can to avoid defendants.
Ankara ‘s response to the operation of Corruption December 17 , with 24 arrests and three ministers forced to resign , was to deal with police headquarters in Istanbul and relieve hundreds of agents. The next step ,was a rule forcing agents to notify the administration of any investigation. So it torpedoed an attempt by the prosecutor Muammer Akkas to investigate a new corrupted frame this week.
The decision of the Constitutional Court on Friday to knock this rule also criticized by the Supreme Council of Judges and Prosecutors , has angered Erdogan. “I should judge ,” the prime minister in a mass rally in Manisa said yesterday. The Turkish leader insists that there is an “international conspiracy” group ready to” upset our spectacular economic growth ” aired after the scandals.
” Erdogan can not try to manipulate the Justice ,” noted Epözdemir Firat , president of the Association of Lawyers Libertarians on government efforts to contain fiscal policies. Some stakes criticize the soldiers who did not occur last year during the investigations into the Ergenekon and Sledgehammer cases , which served to purge the government and secular nationalist military coup to marrow deep state .
With the old uniformed prison system , ” one can only hope that the military alongside with the prime minister will get public support. But no institutional action ” Burak Bekdil noted an expert on defense . The Turkish armed forces got three bloody coups -1960 , 1970 and 1981 – and forced a change of government in 1997 . As journalist Ahmet Sik recalls , cleric Fetullah Gülen then supported the Army.
Gülen Hizmet lead the Islamic brotherhood that Erdogan participated for a decade, has been an ally in his attempt to disable the coup . Meanwhile, it has boosted its members to key positions in the state from where they have declared war on the government. A picture that blurs the Turkish economic miracle , yesterday to bring down the Turkish lira equivalent to a record three for a euro, and sowing distrust among foreign crucial investors.
