CONTEMPORARY EURASIA VOLUME VIII (1) ContemporaryEurasia81 | Page 25

LEVON HOVSEPYAN
value system and worldview homogeneity under strict control. 13 According
to analyst M. Gurcan, the conservative majority in Turkey now believes
that after the recent military coup attempt, the army has started to shrink
the burden of secularism, a process that the political elite must support.
The TAF is known for its hard-line secularist character and for decades, it
adhered strictly to the principle that the army should be kept off-limits from
political Islam. 14 Additionaly, the Islamization of the army is rather a
troubling issue for the secular circles. They view the secularism and the
relationship of the army to Islam not only in terms of military culture, but
also in the context of socio-cultural transformation of the country. The
concern is that if the TAF leave their traditional secularism, the public
will also follow it. 15
We believe that it is not the abandonment of the secular identity by
the army that will lead to the Islamization of society and the weakening
of secular identity, but vice versa. The social, socio-cultural, and value
transformations, one way or another, have their own influence on the
identity and military culture of the army. In this transforming(ed)
environment, the socio-cultural and, dominant ideological values more
easily penetrate the army since the latter has been deprived of its
institutional autonomy and the levers of resistance deriving from it.
The Final Blow to the Institutional Autonomy of the TAF
The army is no longer “a system-basing institute” in Turkey and has
lost its role as the most important autonomous institution. Especially after
the failed July 15 coup, the undertaken legislative and structural changes in
the military and defense spheres could not only be a serious blow to the
institutional autonomy of the army, but also opened a new way for its
collective identity and value transformation. Formerly, the unified army
value-base (Kemalism, secularism) and institutional self-cognition, as well
as institutional culture, served to carry out its coordinating mission, and now
the systemic functions have been distributed between state, political and
social actors. The vivid proof of the above was the transfer of three main
commands of the TAF (Land Force, Air Force and Naval Force) from the
General Staff under the control of National Defense Ministry (hereinafter
referred to as the NDM), as well as the full integration of the Gendarmerie
and Coast Guard commands to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. 16
13
Aydinli, Ozcan, Akyaz, “The Turkish military's march towards Europe”, 80-82.
Metin Gurcan, “Turkish military’s tradition of secularism facing tough test”, Al-Monitor,
Sep. 4, 2018, http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2018/09/turkey-military-facing-
tough-secularism-test.html#ixzz5X32O4bkS (accessed September 6, 2018).
15
Ibid.
16
“Kuvvet
Komutanlıkları MSB'ye bağlandı”, Hürriyet, July 31, 2016,
http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/gundem/kuvvet-komutanliklari-msbye-baglandi-40176771
(accessed August 10, 2016).
14
25