Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris

Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro
de la Prensa-Baszn Ozeti
in Ankara, Turkey's capital. The lo-member council, including the president, four cabinet ministers and the five top
military commanders, sets the agenda on almost every important issue. It is an arrangement that many say enables
the generals to dominate, because they present a united front while the ministers are often divided by fractious politics.
The Eur"f-é:an Union identified the reduction of the council's role as a top priority for Turkey's membership. Volkan
Vural, the country's general secretary for European Union affairs, said that the military supports membership and
that the security council is already the advisory body the Europeans demand.
"How this can be clarified, I don't know," said Mr. Vural, a veteran diplomat who is preparing a 900-page outline on
joining Europe for government leaders this month. Indirect pressure to curtail the military is also coming from the
International Monetary Fund, which asked the government last month to trim the budget for the armed forces as
part of reforms in return for $7.5 billion in emergency aid.
The annual defense budget is about $9 billion, about 3.5 percent of the country's gross domestic product and four
times the amount spent on education. Analysts say billions more are spent through mechanisms that are not reported
in the budget. Turkey is currently on a military buying spree, shopping for about $10 billion in tanks, helicopters
and airborne early-warning systems - an illustration of the military's economic resources that are almost never
discussed, even as the military's political involvement comes under increasing scrutiny.
Military-owned businesses - including a bank, 47 percent of a leading automobile maker and 10percent of Turkey's
cement-making capacity - are among Turkey's largest enterprises and exist free from taxes. The businesses operate
outside government control and profits pay for pensions, resorts, and other benefits for members of the armed
forces, helping attract and retain top personnel and cementing the soldiers' elevated social standing.
Through a large holding company caUed Oyak, the military has financial interests in 24 companies involved in
manufacturing, automobile production, agriculture, construction and finance. It owns a bank, a supermarket chain,
extensive real estate and 47 percent of Oyak-Renault, one of the country's two dominant automobile makers. Many
of these businesses are partnerships with the elite of the economic world, from powerful and wealthy families of
Turkey like Sabanci and Koc to multinationals like Goodyear and DuPont. The effect is to align the econorr.ic interests
of the military and important segments of the business establishment.
Oyak, the Turkish acronym for the Armed Forces Trust and Pension Fund, was established by Parliament in 1961,
after the first military coup, to provide economic benefits for military officers.
Competing with Oyak and its estimated 30,000 employees can be tough. ~tho~gh it was ~e.tu? ou~ide the
government, the company is exempt from taxes and financed by pa.yroUcontributions from military officers and
land donations from the treasury. Describing the history of Oyak m 1998, Taha Parla, a professor at Bosporus
University in Istanbul, concluded, "The civil servant on horseback already turned politician was further to become
merchant, industrialist, financier and rentier."
The military also controls the Foundation for Strengthening the Turkish Armed. Forces, a si~ter corpor~tion established
in 1987 that has interests in 30 defense-related companies manufacturmg everythmg from arrcraft ~d
artillery to missiles and telecommunications systems. It employs an estimated 20,000 people and 80 percent of Its
income is donated to the armed forces.
Critics like Mr. Parla and Eric Rouleau, a former French ambassador to Turkey who wrote about the Turkish military's
power in Foreign Affairs last month, argue that Oyak and its sister foundation blur the line between the private
and public economies and help militarize the society.
The traditional respect for the military is underpinned by a yearlong class that every T~~sh 10th ~ad~r must
attend, taught by a current or retired military officer using a textbook prepared by the mili~ary. BesIdes ~culcating
the principles of Ataturk, the course covers political events fro~ the ~itary perspec~~e, concentrating ~n
threats posed by Turkey's neighbors. "The course has helped internalize the Idea that the military has a space m
civilian life," said Ayse Gul Altinay, a cultural anthropologist who interviewed dozens of students an~. teachers on
the topic. "Even students who are critical of what the officer says still believe he is the most qualifIed to speak
about these issues."
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