Turkey tells a story with major military personnel moves
Turkey's military council made some surprise decisions this week that provide insight into the president's re-election strategy.
Yesterday, Al-Monitor colleague Amberin Zaman summarized the results of the Supreme Military Council's (SMC) critical decisions on promotions of generals in the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK). Today we will examine how these decisions might be interpreted.
First, the SMC met Aug. 2 under Prime Minister Binali Yildirim in a reconfigured format of four military and eight civilian officials. This means that civilians hold the council majority for the first time. Naturally, this also means that from now on, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan — and not the military — will have the final say in SMC decisions.
In mid-July, the feeling in Ankara was that Chief of General Staff Gen. Hulusi Akar would be retired along with commanders of the army, navy and air force.
In my June 14 article, I had noted that despite the flurry of media criticism of Akar, Erdogan had not expressed support for him and it looked like he would be retired unless he was able to bargain with Erdogan. Akar was one of four branch commanders detained by putschists during the July 15, 2016, coup attempt. They all could have stayed on in their positions, but three were retired: Only Akar retained his post. This indicates he did indeed negotiate a favorable outcome through strategic bargaining.
