Turkey’s War of Nerves
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s decision to call an early parliamentary election is unlikely to defuse tensions with the country's military, which sees itself as the guardian of Turkey's secular political order. At the same time, the current crisis underscores that Turkey still faces a long road before it becomes a mature, modern democracy, in which the military accepts a less intrusive role in politics.
With the political standoff surrounding the selection of a new president intensifying, Turkey is entering a critical period that could have a profound effect on both the country’s internal evolution as a secular democracy and its relations with the West. The presidential candidacy of the moderate Islamist Abdullah Gul, currently the foreign minister, has been rejected by Turkey’s highest court, and the parliamentary election scheduled for November has been moved up to July in an effort to break the political impasse. But these steps are unlikely to defuse tensions between Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government and Turkey’s military, which sees itself as the guardian of the country’s secular state.
With the political standoff surrounding the selection of a new president intensifying, Turkey is entering a critical period that could have a profound effect on both the country’s internal evolution as a secular democracy and its relations with the West. The presidential candidacy of the moderate Islamist Abdullah Gul, currently the foreign minister, has been rejected by Turkey’s highest court, and the parliamentary election scheduled for November has been moved up to July in an effort to break the political impasse. But these steps are unlikely to defuse tensions between Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government and Turkey’s military, which sees itself as the guardian of the country’s secular state.