In late February the Turkish government arrested 49 active and retired military officials. The government has accused the military officials of alleging plotting an overthrow of the government in 2003. These arrested have heighten tensions between the Turkish Military and the Islamic based ruling party, AKP. Since taking power in 2003 AKP and its reforms have weaken the Turkish Military's influence in politics and brought the military under civilian control in an attempt to become more 'Eurocentric.' The Turkish military sees itself as the last guard of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk's principles, specifically that Turkey stays a secular state.
My Question is: Do you believe that these arrests are a move in the positive direction for modernizing Turkey? Will Brussels and the EU look upon these action positively or do you think that these arrest have a more sinister intention, some have labeled these arrest as payback or political witch hunt?
Article: http://www.cfr.org/publication/21548/weakening_of_turkeys_military.html
If these arrests were done so correctly and these military officials were trying to overthrow the government then I think it was a positive move for Turkey. I believe that the army should have less influence in government as a general rule. A military dictatorship is the extreme end of a spectrum that is possible from too much military involvement in government. I would think that the EU would look kindly on these events if, as I said before, they were valid. The EU I am sure likes to see a strong influential government that believes in justice and a government not controlled by an army. However these are extreme measurements and probably not the case. It is wrong for me to assume that those retired military leaders wanted total power, they might have wanted to make honest changes in a powerful fashion. Either way if sinister intentions were in mind than it is smart move for the government to intervene, if not than it could be that the government is being too powerful. It is a hard question to answer cause my views are slightly prejudiced based on the hope that the government is doing the right thing.
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