ANKARA: Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government, which faced a wave of street protests and riots this month, moved yesterday to amend an article of the Armed Forces charter cited by generals in the past to justify coups as defence of public order.
Since he was first elected in 2002, Erdogan has radically cut back the power of a military that had toppled four governments in 40 years. The last administration felled, in 1997, was led by an Islamist party to which Erdogan belonged.
Deputy prime minister Bekir Bozdag told reporters the government had submitted proposals to parliament to amend article 35 of the charter, promulgated after a 1960 coup that resulted in the hanging of a prime minister. Erdogan has cited that prime minister, Adnan Menderes, as a political model.
The article was later used as the basis for interventions in 1970 and in 1980, to end months of left-right streetfighting, as well as 1997 when the army saw a danger from political Islam.
The amendment would replace the declared duty to “protect and watch over the republic” — a reference that for many Turks would imply strictly enforcing a secular order — with a more limited obligation to defend “the Turkish homeland against foreign threats”. Erdogan, who has won three elections and despite recent protests has no clear political rivals, denies accusations he seeks to overturn the 90-year-old secular order. But in speeches in recent weeks he has railed against what he sees as the oppression of pious muslims under previous governments. REUTERS
