Professional Military Education in Contemporary Turkey
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MILITARY MASCULINITIES IN THE MAKING: PROFESSIONAL MILITARY EDUCATION IN CONTEMPORARY TURKEY by Elif İrem Az Submitted to the Graduate School of Arts and Social Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Sabancı University Spring 2013-2014 MILITARY MASCULINITIES IN THE MAKING: PROFESSIONAL MILITARY EDUCATION IN CONTEMPORARY TURKEY Approved by: Ayşe Gül Altınay..................................... (Thesis Supervisor) Ayşe Parla................................................ Ayşen Candaş.......................................... Date of Approval: 06.08.2014 © Elif İrem Az 2014 All Rights Reserved ABSTRACT MILITARY MASCULINITIES IN THE MAKING: PROFESSIONAL MILITARY EDUCATION IN CONTEMPORARY TURKEY Elif İrem Az Cultural Studies, MA Thesis, 2014 Supervisor: Ayşe Gül Altınay Keywords: military, education, masculinity, neoliberalism, Turkey. Military schools have historically been the black boxes of the Turkish Armed Forces. The subjects who make up the military and their education in military schools have largely remained outside of academic inquiry. Since the establishment of the Republic, the military has been consolidating its power over political processes, the legal system and everyday life through various coups and interventions. Yet, we witness a historical shift in political, social and cultural positionality of the military since the Ergenekon and Balyoz [Sledgehammer] trials, beginning in 2007 and 2010 respectively. Based upon participant observation, modest historical research, and in-depth interviews with former cadets of Turkish Naval High School and Turkish Naval Academy who were students between the years 2003 and 2013, this study aims to trace the links between my research participants’ narratives and the military’s falling from grace. This thesis argues that this shift ranges from internal restructuring of power in professional military education to changes in ideological, ethnic, and class composition of the military. It is argued that this allegedly homogeneous entity is made up of diverse bodies, subjects and ideologies that are dynamically being restructured in this process. Trying to transcend the artificial distinction between the institutional representation of the military and the agents who compose it, this thesis, draws attention to the importance of academic research on the professional military, not only through the decision-making processes of a high ranking minority of military officers but also through the heterogeneous subjectivities and layers of complication within the institution. i ÖZET ASKERİ ERKEKLİKLER OLUŞURKEN: BUGÜNÜN TÜRKİYESİ’NDE PROFESYONEL ASKERİ EĞİTİM Elif İrem Az Kültürel Çalışmalar, Yüksek Lisans Tezi, 2014 Tez Danışmanı: Ayşe Gül Altınay Anahtar sözcükler: Ordu, eğitim, erkeklik, neoliberalizm, Türkiye. Askerî okullar tarihsel olarak Türk Silahlı Kuvvetleri’nin kara kutusu olmuştur. Türk Silahlı Kuvvetleri’ni oluşturan özneler ve bu öznelerin nasıl yetiştirildiği üzerine akademik çalışmalar yok denecek kadar azdır. Türkiye tarihindeki askerî darbe ve müdahaleler, ordunun siyasi karar alma süreçlerindeki, hukuki alandaki ve gündelik yaşam pratiklerindeki gücünü ve etkisini yeniden üretmiştir. Ne var ki, sırasıyla 2007 ve 2010 yıllarında başlayan Ergenekon ve Balyoz davalarından bu yana, ordunun ülke içindeki siyasi, sosyal ve kültürel konumunda tarihsel bir değişime tanık olunmaktadır. Bu araştırma için, 2003 ve 2013 yılları arasında Heybeliada Deniz Lisesi ve Deniz Harp Okulu öğrencisi olmuş, eski askerî öğrencilerle derinlemesine görüşmeler ve katılımcı- gözlem yapılmıştır. Aynı zamanda mütevazı bir tarihsel araştırma yürütülmüştür. Bu çalışma, görüşmecilerimin anlatılarıyla ordunun değişmekte olan gücü ve konumu arasındaki bağlantıları araştırmaktadır. Burada bahsedilen değişim sürecinin; profesyonel askerî eğitimin yeniden yapılandırılmasından ordunun ideolojik, etnik, sınıfsal, yapısal ve güç ilişkileri bakımından dönüşümüne kadar uzandığı iddia edilmektedir. Homojen bir yapı olarak algılanan ve sivil-asker ilişkileri literatüründe homojen bir yapı olarak ele alınınan ordunun farklı bedenler, erkeklikler, öznellikler ve ideolojilerden oluşan karmaşık bir yapı olduğu ve bu yapının da söz konusu değişim sürecinin etkisiyle dönüşmeye devam ettiği ortaya konmaktadır. Ordunun kurumsal ve homojen temsili ile orduyu oluşturan gerçek özneler arasındaki suni ikiliği aşmaya çalışan bu çalışma, profesyonel orduya dair akademik çalışmaların önemine işaret etmektedir. Zira ordu, yalnızca karar alma pozisyonlarında bulunan yüksek rütbeli bir subaylar azınlığından oluşmamakta ve çok katmanlı bir kurum olarak içerisinde heterojen öznelikler barındırmaktadır. ii To my family and to Murat Çakmak iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my research participants. They shared their personal stories together with their experiences of professional military education with me. This research would not be possible without their generous and wholehearted contributions. I especially thank my father Abdullah Az, and my friend Selim for, intentionally or unintentionally, lifting the lid on the reflections of the military institution and militarism on my life and on my academic interests. Words are powerless to express my gratitude to the efforts, and encouragement of my thesis advisor Ayşe Gül Altınay, who enabled the research and writing of this thesis. I was truly inspired by her intelligence, ethnographic experience and brilliant comments. Her profoundly kind and humble personality together with her intellect made her support invaluable at every stage of this process. My thanks extends of course to Ayşe Parla and Ayşen Candaş who made my thesis what it is now, with their sincere enthusiasm about this research and their insightful comments on my writing. I will forever be grateful to my mother Halide Feyza Az, my grandmother Zinet Tosun, my aunt Kadriye Karakan, and other women who have always been there for me. I am sincerely thankful to Ayşen, Bürge, Dilan, Gülce, Neriman, Seza, and Sinem for somehow always making their support perceptible. Seza literally made my process of reading and writing easier by giving me the password of her library account so many times until I write it on a piece of paper and put in my wallet, which made it possible for me to enjoy the books and easily accessible electronic database of Boğaziçi University Library. Special thanks to Dilara and Marhabo with whom I enjoyed many pleasures and sufferings of writing a thesis, in cooperation. I am very grateful to Müjde Yılmaz who helped me with the translation of the quotations from our interviews with my research participants both as a great translator, and as a good friend. Finally, I would like to express my gratitude once more to my mother, my father, and Murat Çakmak who always encouraged me to do this research by making me believe that I can. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ................................................................................. 1 1.1. Entering the field before the fieldwork .................................................................. 1 1.2. Methodological considerations .............................................................................. 3 1.3. Research participants ............................................................................................. 5 1.4. The terminology and organization of professional military education ................ 17 1.5. Landmark impacts of the military’s falling from grace on Turkish Naval Academy ..................................................................................................................... 20 1.6. Possible contributions and the outline of the thesis ............................................. 28 CHAPTER 2: HISTORICIZING PROFESSIONAL MILITARY EDUCATION IN TURKEY: WHAT ABOUT THE CADETS? ....................................................... 33 2.1. A brief review: civil-military relations in Turkey ............................................... 35 2.2. Professional military education from the late 18th century onwards .................. 44 2.3. The history of Turkish Naval High School and Turkish Naval Academy ........... 55 2.4. Ergenekon and Balyoz [Sledgehammer] trials, and military’s falling from grace .................................................................................................................................... 62 2.5. Quantitative repercussions of macro-level shifts in civil-military relations in military schools: from 2007 onwards ......................................................................... 68 CHAPTER 3: MASCULINITIES IN MILITARY SCHOOLS: PUNISHMENT, EXHAUSTION, FRATERNITY ................................................................................. 75 3.1. The Routine .......................................................................................................... 77 3.1.1. Growing up still standing: Tabur hours ....................................................... 82 3.1.2. Punishment and Anxiety ............................................................................... 86 3.1.3. Weekends: The good reason to comply ........................................................ 88 3.1.4. Exhaustion and bodies .................................................................................. 89 3.2. Men’s Friendship and Class Unity [Sınıf Birliği] ................................................ 92 3.3. “Lady Students” [Bayan Öğrenciler] and Fraternal Contract