The young woman on the bus between Istanbul and Ankara is earnest in her explanation. “The army is like our mother,” she says. “We might criticize her and shout at her sometimes, but that’s because we know she’ll always be there when we need her.”
Turks’ respect for their armed forces runs deep. … But views on the army’s role are changing. And when police [two weeks ago] took away more than 60 officers, including former chiefs of the navy and air force, for questioning about coup conspiracies, the raids came as a shattering blow to a military prestige that has already been shaken by a string of very public scandals.
The armed forces’ near-silence since the detentions is an admission of a fundamental shift in the balance of power, in a country where a “deep state” of generals, bureaucrats and civilians was long thought to hold sway over elected politicians. The upheaval could also trigger a decisive struggle to determine who runs Turkey—a crucial question for its western allies as the NATO member and European Union applicant assumes an increasingly prominent role in regional diplomacy. Access the full article>>
