Turkey: Geoplitica"Ground-Zero"l

Turkey’s not the only place where we need to worry about a non-independent military. In light of Erdogan’s extreme and brutal crackdown following the coup, it’s becoming more likely that this was indeed a Reichstags’ fire event — something the government fomented in order to justify seizing total control over all of Turkey’s institutions. The real surprise factor was that the military, which has preserved secular government in Turkey since the 1920s, supported Erdogan. Or maybe it’s not a surprise:

Since Erdogan and his Islamist APK Party were swept into power in decisive 2002 elections, he has been on a mission to effectively neuter the Turkish military leadership to insulate himself from ouster by secularist generals, colonels, and admirals. And he has been quite successful in his mission, not harboring warm memories of 1997 when the last Turkish military coup ejected his previous Islamist party’s rule. Top military brass saw it as their duty to end yet another political party’s march toward squeezing the Ataturk principle of secularism from Turkish government.

In turn, Erdogan has made it his duty for the past 14 years to squeeze the Ataturk principle of secularism from the military leadership. Many generals and admirals have chosen early retirement over the specter of being frog-marched to a Turkish prison to await a loaded trial. At one point half of Turkey’s admirals were imprisoned, and fully 15% or more of its army and air force generals as well.

Barack Obama is not imprisoning America’s top military leadership, although it was interesting to see Petraeus hunted down (and please don’t mention that Hillary did worse and walked). Obama has, however, been steadily firing top brass.

It’s entirely possible, of course, that the top brass deserves firing,having gotten corrupt and sclerotic.  However, it’s equally possible that the firings have a larger purpose, and that it’s no coincidence that they occur at a time that the military increasingly focuses, not on defending America against external enemies, but on climate change, women’s issues, and the LGBTQ stuff, none of which appears to have improved military readiness, and much of which seems to have left the military weaker and more vulnerable.

Glenn Reynolds points out Turkey’s regression.  You know that Turkey is regressing and I know that Turkey is regressing, which is very dangerous for world stability, but Glenn Reynolds just says it so beautifully:

It seems paranoid. But what Erdogan is really doing is eradicating the last remnants of the secular Turkish state, as he proceeds to turn Turkey into, instead, an Islamic State. As he builds an enormous palace, consolidates power, and elevates Islamists over secular types, it almost looks as if he’s trying to restore the Ottoman Empire with himself in the role of Sultan. In fact, Erdogan has made that comparison himself.

Back when he was mayor of Istanbul, Erdogan said that “Democracy is like a streetcar. When you come to your stop, you get off.” By all appearances, he has reached his stop.

This is, needless to say, bad news for Europe and the West. For many decades, Turkey was a staunch NATO ally, guarding the southern flank against the Soviet Union. Turkey still has the second-largest army in NATO. But how much longer can Turkey remain in NATO if it becomes an Islamic state with a politics, and a foreign policy, that are inconsistent with the peace and security of Europe?