Turkey's 'Sledgehammer' Verdicts Take Military Down a Peg
Turkish courts have convicted a large number of Turkish officers accused of trying to foment a coup d'état against the Justice and Development Party (AKP). Though a major step toward ending the military tutelage system in Turkey, the verdicts don't mean that Turkey has completed its transition to democracy, warns Henri J. Barkey for Al-Monitor.
In one of the most awaited trials in Turkey, nicknamed the "Sledgehammer Case," the court convicted and sentenced a large number of active and retired Turkish officers accused of trying to foment a coup d'état against the democratically elected Justice and Development Party (AKP). This judgment represents another step in the long process to end the military tutelage system in Turkey. Paradoxically, the generals have only themselves to blame for this outcome.
The trial's serious procedural and evidentiary problems notwithstanding, the verdict is unprecedented in Turkish civil-military relations. Except for a colonel who was convicted of mutiny in the 1960s, Turkish officers and certainly high-ranking generals had never faced a court proceeding for attempting to overthrow the constitutional order, much less for actually doing it as they did in 1960, 1971, 1980 and even as late as 1997.
Accountability in civilian courts is the penultimate stage in the civilianization of the Turkish military. Next, the armed forces will have to be subordinated to a civilian defense minister. From now on, no officer will ever dare to contemplate participating in any effort to overthrow an elected government. The era of military tutelage over civilian life — when officers not even directly in power exercised a great deal of influence on day-to-day politics and policy-making — is over.
The sheer scope of the case both in terms of the number of officers accused and the extent of the charges is a body blow from which the military will have a hard time recovering. The verdict will both legitimize and strengthen those in society who had labored against what The Economist had aptly labeled "Turkey's meddlesome generals." Among the 326 officers convicted are three retired four-star generals, including the former commanders of the air force, navy and the 1st Army in Istanbul who were sentenced to life imprisonment (the punishment was then reduced to 20 years). In addition, a number of three-stars were also condemned to 16–18 years in prison.
