Daren Butler: Top resignations weaken power of Turkish military

The resignations of Turkey's top four military commanders last Friday will enable the ruling AK Party to consolidate its power over the armed forces, reinforcing its gains in a decade-long struggle to exert control over the once-omnipotent military.

The cost of that victory will be heightened polarisation in Turkey between the government, which has roots in political Islam, and its staunchly secularist opponents.

With 250 military personnel, including dozens of generals, in jail on charges of conspiring against prime minister Tayyip Erdogan's government, the resignations will also fuel concerns about the operational efficiency of Nato's second-biggest army.

Subordination of the military to greater civilian control will be welcomed by many as a sign of growing democratisation in the European Union-candidate country, but will stir fears that Mr Erdogan is gaining excessive power over state institutions.

The armed forces, which have staged three coups and pushed Turkey's first Islamist-led government from power in 1997, are no longer seen as able or willing to intervene in politics.

Fresh from a resounding election victory in which the AKP won a third term in office with 50 per cent of the vote, Mr Erdogan is well placed to push ahead with plans to overhaul a constitution written under military tutelage after a 1980 coup.

AK Party critics see moves to weaken secularist institutions such as the army as a factor behind investigations into the alleged "Ergenekon" and "Sledgehammer" plots to overthrow the government.

The generals' sudden departure, ahead of a key meeting of the Supreme Military Council to decide on military promotions, will inflame public suspicions about the motives behind these long-running court cases.

"The people will hold the political authorities responsible, because there is a widespread belief that an operation has been conducted to discredit the Turkish Armed Forces in the course of the Ergenekon and Sledgehammer investigations," said Gungor Mengi, the chief columnist in Vatan newspaper.

Outgoing armed forces commander General Isik Kosaner took a similar line in a farewell message to "my esteemed comrades in arms".

"They tried to create the impression that the Turkish Armed Forces was a criminal organisation and ... the biased media encouraged this with all kinds of false stories, smears and allegations," Mr Kosaner wrote.