Military to be reined in but getting ‘fresh blood’
Turkey will shut down its military academies and put the armed forces under the command of the defence minister, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said yesterday, in a move designed to bring the military under tighter government control after a failed coup.
The changes come after more than 1700 military personnel were dishonourably discharged last week for their role in the abortive July 15-16 putsch.
Erdogan said last week that the military, Nato’s second-biggest, needed ‘‘fresh blood’’. The dishonourable discharges included around 40 per cent of Turkey’s admirals and generals.
Turkey accuses United Statesbased Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen of orchestrating the putsch, in which Erdogan has said 237 people were killed and more than 2100 wounded.
Gulen, who has lived in selfimposed exile in the US for years, denies the charge and has condemned the coup.
So far, more than 60,000 people in the military, judiciary, civil service and schools have been either detained, removed or suspended over suspected links with Gulen.
‘‘Our armed forces will be much stronger with the latest decree we are preparing. Our force commanders will report to the defence minister,’’ Erdogan said.
‘‘Military schools will be shut down . . . We will establish a national defence university.’’
He also said he wanted the national intelligence agency and the chief of general staff, the most senior military officer, to report directly to the presidency, moves that would require a constitutional change and therefore the backing of opposition parties.
Both the general staff and the intelligence agency now report to the prime minister’s office. Putting them under the president’s overall direction would be in line with Erdogan’s push for a new constitution centred on a strong executive presidency.
Erdogan also said that a total of 10,137 people had been formally arrested following the coup.
The shake-up comes as Turkey’s military – long seen as the guardians of the secular republic – is already stretched by violence in the mainly Kurdish southeast, and Islamic State attacks on its border with Syria.
The army killed 35 Kurdish militants after they attempted to storm a base in the southeastern Hakkari province on Saturday, military officials said.
Erdogan said he planned to thin the numbers of the gendarmerie security forces widely used in the fight against Kurdish militants in the southeast, although he said they would become more effective with better weaponry, and he promised to continue the fight against Kurdish insurgents.
The state-run Anadolu news agency reported that 758 soldiers has been released on the recommendation of prosecutors after giving testimony, and the move was agreed by a judge. Another 231 soldiers remained in custody, it said.
Erdogan, meanwhile, has said it was ‘‘shameful’’ that Western countries showed more interest in the fate of the plotters than in standing with a fellow Nato member and has upbraided Western leaders for not visiting after the putsch.
US chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford, a top military official, is due to visit Turkey today.
In an unexpected move, Erdogan said on Saturday that as a one-off gesture, he would drop all lawsuits filed against people for insulting him. He said the decision was triggered by feelings of ‘‘unity’’ against the coup attempt.
It could also be aimed at silencing his Western critics. Prosecutors have opened more than 1800 cases against people for insulting Erdogan since he became president in 2014. Those targeted include journalists, cartoonists and even children.
It was not immediately clear whether Erdogan would also drop his legal action against German comedian Jan Boehmermann, who earlier this year recited a poem on television suggesting Erdogan engaged in bestiality and watched child pornography, prompting the president to file a complaint with German prosecutors that he had been insulted.
European leaders worry that their differences with Erdogan could prompt him to retaliate and put an end to a historic deal, agreed in March, to stem the wave of migrants to Europe.
‘‘The success of the pact so far is fragile. President Erdogan has several times hinted he wants to terminate the agreement,’’ European Commission President JeanClaude Juncker said.