CONTEMPORARY EURASIA VOLUME VII (1, 2) Contemporary-Eurasia-3new | Page 56

CONTEMPORARY EURASIA
ber of civil institutions. An important aspect of criticism where Turkey
secured progress was the application of Military Penal Law to civilians.
The military courts had jurisdiction over civilians both in times of war
and peace. Through reforms the military courts’ jurisdiction over civilians
was gradually reduced and in 2006 civilian trials by military courts were
fi nally abolished.
The Turkish National Security Council (NSC) and its infl uence over
Turkish politics was another major concern for the EU. The NSC was
established after the 1960 coup with the adoption of the 1961 constitu-
tion. The role of the NSC was signifi cantly increased with the adoption
of the 1982 constitution after the military intervention of 1980. The NSC
is defi ned in the Constitution as a consultative organ 44 and if in 1961 its
suggestions had an advisory nature, with the 1982 constitutional amend-
ments the recommendations of the NSC became a priority for the Council
of Ministers. Moreover, with the 1982 amendments to the constitution the
number of civilian members was reduced to fi ve thus creating an equal
number of civilians and military embers. Although the main task of the
NSC is to advise the government on the formulation and implementation
of the National Security Strategy its infl uence was visible on every mat-
ter going as far as the organization of educational curricula. Although the
recommendations were of advisory nature they had to be considered se-
riously if not fully implemented. The EU regarded the NSC as the main
channel of infl uence for the military. It was evident that the existence
of the NSC provided the grounds for the military and civil roles of the
armed forces hence civilianizing the NSC was a priority set by the EU. 45
Among the reforms, one of the most crucial amendments was done to the
NSC. By amending Article 118 of the constitution the number of civilian
members was increased on behalf of military ones thus creating a civilian
majority in the NSC. Moreover, the decisions of the NSC were limited
to mere advice which would be evaluated by the government but would
not be regarded as priority. Before the reforms national security and de-
fense were defi ned rather broadly and the duties of the NSC went well
beyond national defense policy. With the implementation of the Seventh
Harmonization Package the duties of the NSC were limited. The duties of
the Secretariat of the Council (always a member of the military), which
supervised implementation of NSC decisions on behalf of the President
and the Prime Minister, were also limited as it was stripped of its execu-
tive powers. The oversight of implementation was transferred to a Deputy
Prime Minister, thus power went from the military to the civilians. The
44
45
Güney and Karatekelioğlu, “Turkey’s EU candidacy and civil-military relations,” 445.
Bilgiç, “The military and Europeanization,” 803-824.
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