Turkey’s security sector becomes latest arena of Islamism debate
Increasingly divisive Islamic and ultra-nationalist arguments in Turkey have started to plague the country's security sector following last summer's coup attempt.
The shock of the July 15 abortive coup followed by instant imposed reforms and mass purges have drawn Turkey’s security sector — made up of a large military, the National Intelligence Service (MIT), the national police, the gendarmerie command and private security firms — into a structural transformation process. Given Turkey’s undeniable secular-conservative divide, it is not hard to see that the state’s armed security actors are becoming the main instruments of political controversy in the country.
Islamic and ultra-nationalist sources of guidance, particularly in the police force, raise the question of the professionalism of armed security forces that adopt active positions in the debate on Islamophobia and Islamic fascism.
