Tag: Necdet Ozel

Turkey awaits key anti-PKK weapons

ANKARA – Hürriyet Daily News Ümit Enginsoy

Turkey plans to boosts fight against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party by acquiring several items of weapons and vehicles worth billions of US dollars.

AgustaWestland will deliver its first T-129 attack helicopter, a joint project with Turkish Aerospace Industries, by the end of this year, an official says.

AgustaWestland will deliver its first T-129 attack helicopter, a joint project with Turkish Aerospace Industries, by the end of this year, an official says.

Ümit Enginsoy Ümit Enginsoy uenginsoy@aol.com

The Turkish military is slated to acquire several weapons systems to use against terrorists from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) this year, one senior procurement official said last week.

Italy’s AgustaWestland and Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) have been collaborating on building the T-129 attack helicopter, a Turkish version of the company’s A129 Mangusta International.

AgustaWestland is scheduled to deliver the first nine of a planned 59 helicopters to the military toward the end of 2012.

Turkish authorities then will assemble the required weapons systems on the platforms, and the nine helicopter gunships are expected to enter service in 2013, the official said.

Separately, the United States is expected to deliver three AH-1W Super Cobra attack helicopters early this year. The U.S. Congress approved the sale of these three choppers, worth $125 million, toward the end of 2012.

Additionally, TAI, Turkey’s state-owned aerospace powerhouse, is scheduled to deliver to the military three Anka Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) unmanned aerial vehicles in 2012, to be used for reconnaissance purposes, the official said.

Turkey is already operating nine Israeli-made Heron MALE drones against the PKK. The United States has also deployed another four RQ-1 Predator MALE drones at Turkey’s southern İncirlik airbase to fly over PKK camps in northern Iraq and provide the Turkish military intelligence.

Additionally Turkey has requested to buy four RQ-1 Predator reconnaissance drones and two armed MQ-1 Reapers, but the U.S. has not responded to the request.

In addition to its MALE drone capabilities, the Turkish military operates scores of smaller drones.

Unmanned vehicles

TAI’s efforts to develop and produce the Anka have seen a delay of several years. “Attack helicopters and unmanned aerial vehicles are among the most effective weapons against terrorists, and we will have an abundance of these weapons soon,” said one security official.

The PKK this year intensified terrorist attacks against Turkish military and civilian targets, causing a public outrage.

Separately, the U.S. Boeing is expected to deliver the first of a planned four spy planes to the Turkish Air Force in 2012. The program to manufacture the four Airborne Early Warning & Control (AEW&C) aircraft is worth more than $1.6 billion and is behind schedule a few years.

The Defense Industry Executive Committee, Turkey’s highest procurement agency, is also expected to select a foreign company in Turkey’s $4 billion long range air and missile defense system program. Among the candidates competing to build an air and missile defense system with Turkish partners are U.S. companies Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, with their Patriot Air and Missile Defense System; Russian Rosoboronexport’s S-300; Chinese CPMIEC’s (China Precision Machinery Export-Import Corp.) HQ-9; and European Eurosam’s SAMP/T Aster 30.

The Defense Industry Executive Committee’s members include Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Defense Minister İsmet Yılmaz, Chief of the Turkish General Staff Gen. Necdet Özel and Procurement Chief Murad Bayar.

Finally, the committee would select a national commercial shipyard which will manufacture the third through the eighth of the Milgem national corvettes. The first two corvettes were built at a military shipyard. The first corvette, the TCG Heybeliada, already has entered service in the Navy, and the second, the TCG Büyükada, has been put to sea for tests.

January/02/2012

via ECONOMICS – Turkey awaits key anti-PKK weapons.

January 6, 2012
Turkish President Gul Visits Troops on Iraq Border

Turkish President Abdullah Gul on Friday made a surprise visit to Turkey’s southeast to inspect troops on the Iraq border and boost the morale of soldiers.

The president, accompanied by Chief of General Staff Gen. Necdet Ozel, visited troops in the Yuksekova district of the border city of Hakkari.

Media reports, citing sources working for the office of the presidency, said the visit aimed to boost the morale of soldiers and that the president’s visit will not be limited to Yuksekova. He will reportedly visit troops in other areas along the border.

Turkey has recently seen increased violence in the Southeast by the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The group, classified as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, has killed more than 50 people, including civilians, in the past couple of months.

via Turkish President Gul Visits Troops on Iraq Border.

October 16, 2011
What Turkey has done right

Turks are proud of their language, and Turkey is emerging as Europe’s new shinning star. PHOTO: AFP

Turkey is turning heads. A few weeks ago the top brass of the entire Turkish army resigned- an act that could have previously brought down whatever democratic government was at the helm- but Prime Minister Erdogan reacted coolly and appointed a new army chief. The present AKP (Justice and Development Party) government has slowly chipped away the power of the deep state. Moreover many have alluded to Turkey’s pluralism and democracy as an example for all Muslim countries to follow.

Turkey was also the fastest growing country in the world last year, with a growth rate of just over 9%. It has transformed itself from the sick man of Europe to its shining star, as countries like Greece, Portugal and Spain, because of their inability to depreciate currency, gasp under the Euro zone’s hangman noose. Indeed, in a conversation I had with a member of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, I discovered that Turkey was not going to go begging for European Union EU) membership but would accept it on its own terms if offered.

The greatest challenge the country faces is making a new constitution.

In a 1980 coup the military drew up a defacto constitution for the country. As one would expect the focus of this constitution was stability, not individual rights. With the AKP’s third term in power, it looks like the party is going to attempt to draw up a new constitution. From the perspective of an international observer the two most interesting things to look at will be how the constitution defines (or does not define) the role of religion and secularism, and the Kurdish issue.

It is common to associate Turkey with secularism – where religion has no business of the state. However, the Turkish state is not secular in that sense, in fact it is laicist – where the state controls what parts of religion are acceptable and what are not – an important distinction. A secular state does not care whether a woman adopts a headscarf or not; a laicist state decides whether a woman should be allowed to wear a headscarf in a university or another public space (France and historically Turkey have ruled that they cannot). The laicist state was established by Ataturk whose cult still lives on even after more than 60 years of his passing. Ataturk’s paintings are ubiquitous inside homes and on public spaces. A friend of mine who was travelling the country related to me that a person she spoke to said Ataturk was like a father to him. His importance can be judged by the fact that the Turkish blasphemy law protects Ataturk not religion!

The Kurdish question also needs to be resolved. After the breakup of the multi-ethnic Ottoman Empire because of various rebellions of nationalism within the country, the Turkish state imposed homogeneity. There was a single idea of Turkishness and anything that deviated from this was perceived to be a threat to the Turkish state. The largest dissidents against this policy have been the Kurds. The Kurds (who have no country of their own but are split over 4 countries) demand that their cultural rights be accepted and that they be allowed to learn their language in schools. The state has been slow to respond, but in the past few years there have been signs of progress; recently a Kurdish channel was allowed to broadcast for the first time in Kurdish. The new constitution is likely to raise many questions about what kind of state Turkey wishes to be for the better part of the twenty first century.

What lessons can be learned from Turkey?

The first thing to note is that Turks are proud of their language. They do not have insecurities or inferiority complexes about not knowing any English and their pride in their language gives them a strong and authentic sense of identity – for both the elites and the non-elites, something which post colonial states like Pakistan lack.

The second lesson is that democracy does work given time. Whenever the Turkish army has come to power it has caused short term stability but in the long run it has not helped the country. In the absence of transparency and checks, all militaries make questionable policy decisions. It may surprise readers to know that even the staunchly pro-secular Turkish military employed violent religious militant groups (sound familiar?) at one point to suppress the Kurdish rebellion.

Ataturk’s reforms lifted Turkey from a backward country to a modern nation but they came at a cost; his secularization reforms were harsh on practicing Muslims in the country and have galvanized support against secularism by conservative Muslims all over the world. Some people told me stories about Qurans being flushed into toilets in the countryside during the post reform years. There was no way to confirm the veracity of this claim but it’s important to note that this impression was created. The fear of secularization as a threat to religion is a real one from the perspective of conservative Muslims and it must be addressed

The views expressed by the writer and the reader comments do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of The Express Tribune.

via What Turkey has done right – The Express Tribune Blog.

September 18, 2011
Turkish bloggers divided over civil-military relations

By Alakbar Raufoglu for Southeast European Times

”]Following the abrupt resignation of Turkey’s top military brass, a heated debate on civil-military relations and democratisation ensued in the Turkish blogosphere.

On July 29th the Chief of the General Staff and the heads of the army, navy, and air force resigned en masse over the continued arrest of nearly 250 officers — nearly one-fifth of the officer corps — in multiple ongoing coup plot trials.

The resignations came ahead of the four day meeting of the Supreme Military Council (YAS) — bringing together the heads of the armed forces and government — which determines promotions and retirement of officers.

The row between military and government was directly attributed to the AKP government’s refusal to promote a number of arrested officers as desired by the military.

In a country where the military has historically played a dominant role, including the toppling of four governments, the general’s decision to step aside rather than confront a government they have often been at odds with signals important changes to civil-military relations.

What surprised many observers was the calm handling of the situation by the country’s political leadership, according to blogger Ubeydullah Goktekin.

“Now even soldiers, who until now made governments resign, can resign in Turkey; this time they were forced to leave quietly without a trace,” he said. The generals’ action, he noted, did not trigger widespread public outrage.

The incident was welcomed by many Turks as a major step towards the normalisation of the state, according to blogger Abdullah Ayan.

“Now, a whole period has finished in Turkey,” he wrote, adding that from now on the guardianship of the military over the government will never be the same.

Continuing the point, blogger Yusuf Gezgin called the generals’ resignation “a big victory of the ruling party over the soldiers”.

“The government stood upright, the president acted decisively and despite all of the bluffs he didn’t concede; he didn’t bend over and bow to anyone,” he wrote.

But other bloggers, such as Osman Hincal, view events as the “latest stage in Turkey’s de-democratization and de-secularization”, and worry about the removal of institutional checks and balances.

“Since the AKP came to power in November 2002,” wrote Hincal, “it has seen the Turkish army as the strongest power against it. To loosen its power, to wear it down and cut its voice was necessary.”

“Let’s admit it, to a large extent they [AKP] have been successful. In undertaking this operation they have also scared the civilian sector. There is no power left in Turkey to speak out against them,” he continued, reflecting the common belief the army is the guardian of the state and secularism.

“Democracy can only be called a healthy democracy if the ‘rule of law’ functions,” writes Utku Cakirozer. “Let’s see if events that have been occurring in Turkey meet [the standard] of a healthy democracy.”

“No matter who they are — civilians, military, students, teachers, women, men, even elected officials — thousands of Turkish citizens are arrested for months and years in deprivation of their freedoms,” he writes, adding that restrictions on freedom of press and expression have raised concerns among allies and financial institutions.

“After the general’s resignations is there any hope of preventing all of this from happening?” he asked.

This content was commissioned for SETimes.com.

August 30, 2011
Turkey’s military defanged: Is it good for democracy?

By Alexander Christie-Miller, Correspondent / August 5, 2011

Istanbul

When Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan accepted the resignations of his four most senior military officers on July 29, he savored a victory unprecedented in Turkey’s modern history: Whenever the government and army had squared off before, politicians had been the ones to go.

Related stories

* Turkey coup plot: What’s behind the tumultuous identity crisis

* Turkey coup plot: 12 officers charged as government takes on military

* Turkish leaders meet to dispel coup plot tensions

But amid celebration of the military’s defeat as a waymark of democracy, little scrutiny has been given to allegations that fabricated evidence and the framing of suspects played a role in its downfall.

The military’s chief of general staff, Isik Kosaner, said in his parting statement that it was “impossible” to continue serving due to his inability to protect the legal rights of some 250 officers detained for a range of alleged antigovernment plots.

Many of them have been held for more than a year without trial, and publicly available papers relating to the plots reveal significant inconsistencies.

RELATED: How Turkey’s military upheaval will affect NATO

The main document detailing an alleged 2003 coup plot code-named “Sledgehammer,” included in an indictment leaked by both prosecution and defense, refers to an organization that was not founded until two years later.

And the timing of many of the arrest warrants and charges has fueled claims that the probes are politically motivated. They are often filed in the lead-up to Supreme Military Council meetings such as this week’s, meetings at which the government and army have clashed over military promotions.

Separately, scores of journalists, academics, and others are involved in mass trials for involvement in an alleged deep state network. Hundreds of Kurdish politicians and activists have also been detained as part of a sprawling antiterror investigation.

“This is not about whether you’re pro-military or antimilitary, it’s about the rule of law,” says Asli Aydintasbas, a columnist at the daily Milliyet newspaper. “Do we want to live in a country where political opponents are eliminated by trials that are unconvincing? I find it very disturbing.”

But many Turks have scant sympathy for a military that for decades brutalized its own people and overthrew four governments as self-appointed guardian of the secular state forged by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

“I’m not going to say that the deficiencies in due process is the main aspect in [the Sledgehammer] case,” says Sahin Alpay, a columnist for Today’s Zaman newspaper. “It’s helping to put an end to the political role of the armed forces.”

Confrontation between AKP, military

Turkey’s long history of military intervention in civilian rule began in 1960, when the army overthrew Prime Minister Adnan Menderes, who was then tried before a kangaroo court and executed.

After seizing power again in 1971, it staged a third coup in 1980, detaining 650,000 people. Of them, 230,000 were tried, 14,000 stripped of citizenship, 50 executed, and 171 killed in custody.

via Turkey’s military defanged: Is it good for democracy? – CSMonitor.com.

August 6, 2011
With 4 Promotions, Turkey Begins a New Era

By SEBNEM ARSU

ISTANBUL — Turkey’s civilian leadership appointed four new commanders on Thursday, decisively strengthening its control over its armed forces less than a week after the military leadership abruptly resigned in frustration over the continuing prosecution of officers accused of plotting to overthrow the government.

The new appointments of a chief of general staff and commanders of the army, navy and air force reflected the Islamic-leaning civilian government’s increased assertiveness in its struggle with the country’s military establishment, which has orchestrated three coups since 1960 and forced another government from power in 1997.

The appointments were announced at the conclusion of a four-day meeting of the Senior Military Council, a powerful group led by top military and civilian officials.

In prior years, the council funneled military influence into the public sphere. But on Thursday, the meeting was led exclusively by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and a widely circulated photograph of the event seemed to illustrate his success in ensuring civilian supremacy in Turkish politics. The appointees resemble their predecessors in background and experience, but their rise is the start of what many see as a new era of civilian dominance here.

The resignations last Friday came as a shock inside and outside of Turkey, a NATO member and an increasingly influential economic power that maintains close ties to Europe and the Middle East. But Mr. Erdogan, a popular leader whose conservative, Islamic-oriented party came to power in 2002, took the moment as an opportunity to install a military leadership more likely to accept being subordinate to a civilian government.

The new chief of staff is Necdet Ozel; the land forces commander is Hayri Kivrikoglu; Mehmet Erten is now the air force commander; and Emin Murat Bilgel became naval commander.

Civilian control of the military is also an important requirement for membership in the European Union, which Mr. Erdogan’s government has been seeking to join since he took office.

“The military had some misconceptions and an incorrect, antidemocratic culture about the role of an army,” said Atilla Sandikli, a former military officer and now a researcher at Bilgesam, a research group based in Ankara, Turkey’s capital. “However, from now on, I believe that the army would not be able to dismiss any civilian authority or its decrees or manipulate governments like it did in the past.”

The four commanders who resigned last week were angry over the arrests and prosecution of hundreds of officers dating to 2003, accused of conspiring to destabilize the government and cause it to fall. The catalyst for the resignations was Mr. Erdogan’s refusal to take action against the slow-moving judicial process enmeshing about 200 military personnel, including 14 generals and admirals.

Critics of Mr. Erdogan say the case reveals his authoritarian tendencies and that much of the evidence has been fabricated. But Mr. Erdogan and his party, Justice and Development, enjoy widespread support among Turkey’s 73 million people, whose livelihoods have improved significantly under his tenure.

Some former members of the military have viewed the latest developments with a sense of resignation and defeat, fearing that the military will no longer be able serve as a balance of power against what they see as Mr. Erdogan’s efforts to erode the secular principles enshrined by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk at the founding of modern Turkey nearly a century ago.

via With 4 Promotions, Turkey Begins a New Era – NYTimes.com.

August 5, 2011