Turkish General Staff Pondering Promotional Gordion Knot

Saturday, 7 August 2010
The tangle in the military hierarchy showed little hope of being unraveled as top army and government officials continued conferring following the controversial Supreme Military Council, or YAŞ, which ended Wednesday with key posts left unfilled.
“Efforts are being made to untie the knot,” daily Hürriyet columnist Tufan Türenç told NTV, referring to the round of meetings in Ankara, where Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan met Friday with Defense Minister Vecdi Gönül, who later went to military headquarters for a meeting with force commanders.
“This is not usual practice. Gen. [Atilla] Işık’s appeal for retirement complicated the things that happened when established traditions were not followed,” Türenç said.
Controversies over the promotion of officers embroiled in coup-plot accusations left the military unable to name new figures for its top two posts, chief of General Staff and Land Forces commander. Gen. Işık, the expected “B-plan” for the Land Forces post after Gen. Hasan Iğsız was called to testify in an ongoing investigation, announced Thursday that he would retire.
Though the government’s refusal to sign off on Iğsız’s appointment due to his alleged involvement in an online anti-government propaganda campaign deepened fault lines between the powerful army and the ruling party, Gen. Işık denied Friday that he had asked to retire as a result of pressure from the military ranks.
“I decided to retire of my own will. Other claims are wrong,” Gen. Işık told the private broadcaster NTV on Friday.
The general’s application for early retirement had been considered by many as a protest in response to what is being seen in some circles as the government’s interference in military decisions.
Speaking to reporters en route to the Central Anatolian province of Eskişehir, Erdoğan said Işık’s retirement procedures may not be implemented. He added that no proposal has come from the Turkish Armed Forces, or TSK, for who will next hold the post of Land Forces commander.
“There is no problem. That issue should be resolved through mutual agreement but no different proposal was made to me by the Land Forces Command,” Erdoğan said.
After returning from Eskişehir late Friday, Erdoğan was due to meet with the current chief of General Staff, Gen. İlker Başbuğ. No announcement had been made on the appointment of the next Land Forces commander when the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review went to press.
The military’s inability to fill the Land Forces spot has also kept it from appointing a new chief of General Staff. Current Land Forces Commander Gen. Işık Koşaner is expected to replace current Chief of General Staff Gen. İlker Başbuğ on Aug. 30.
President Abdullah Gül held a surprise meeting late Thursday with Gen. Koşaner rather than Gen. Başbuğ, leading to speculation that relations had cooled between Başbuğ, who had been insisting on Gen. Iğsız’s appointment as Land Forces commander, and the president, who opposed the promotion.'Judicial process ignored'The current developments are the result of the military’s attempt to ignore the judicial process, daily Zaman columnist Hüseyin Gülerce said.“The issue will not be solved when the two key posts of Land Forces commander and chief of General Staff are appointed. There is an ongoing judicial process surrounding other military officers,” he said.Gen. Iğsız was one of the 19 officers summoned on the first day of YAŞ to testify in a probe of an online anti-government propaganda allegedly linked to the Action Plan for the Fight against Fundamentalism. That case has been combined with a branch of the Ergenekon probe, an investigation into an alleged gang accused of plotting to overthrow the ruling government.Pending promotions were also delayed for 11 officers caught up in the ongoing investigation of an another alleged coup plot, this one known as the “Balyoz” (Sledgehammer) case.“The government has just cause in this case, while the army is trying to exclude the political will from the military process,” daily Radikal columnist Oral Çalışlar said.Daily Cumhuriyet columnist Cüneyt Arcayürek, however, argued that the ruling party took steps at this year’s YAŞ to sweep anti-government military officers out of the TSK.“The latest YAŞ will be talked about and discussed more,” Arcayürek wrote in his column published Friday. “At a time when terrorism and enemies at home and abroad have made strides, the government has not placed priority on professional military values regarding promotions and appointments.”
Saturday, 7 August 2010Hurriyet Daily News and Economic Review