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University of Wales Aberystwyth DEPARTMENT OF INTERNATIONAL POLITICS 2005 Security Governmentality in Turkey by Tuncay Kardas Submitted in part fulfillment of the Degree of Ph.D. in International Politics DECLARATION This work hasnot previouslybeen accepted in substancefor any degreeand is not being concurrently submitted in candidature for any degree )I Signed -ý_Ceo ................................................ Date ...... ..... .... .......... ...................... STATEMENT 1 This thesis is the result of my own investigations, except where otherwise stated. Other sourcesare acknowledged by footnotes giving explicit references.A bibliography is appended. Signed ...................... Date C)3 12. - 2- o,,D ..... .............................................. STATEMENT 2 I hereby give consent for my thesis, if accepted,to be available for photocopying and for inter-library loan, and for the title and summary to be made available to outside organizations. ýý/ SigneZ;; ........................ Date lQ,9 ...... ... .................... ABSTRACT The thesis asks a central question: what is the nature of the relationship between state security and domestic politics in contemporary Turkey? It aims to show that although the pendulum of Turkish politics has swung back and forth between democratic elections and military interventions, in the last decade a new set of historically conditioned discourses and practices of state security have fused the political and military realms to produce a peculiar regime which I call security govemmentality. Understanding the traits of Turkish security governmentality is the task of the thesis. It adopts a genealogical approach. The subject-matter analyzes both the historical-political conditions within which security governmentality emerged as a dominant practice of rule and the prospects of its dissolution. Indeed, the dissolution of security governmentality gained an air of expectancy particularly after 1999 when Turkey was granted an 'official candidacy' and started to adapt the EU democratic membership conditionality. Within this framework, the thesis explores the peculiar entanglement between security and politics in Turkey, which has produced an uneven distribution of power between the military and the society, and examines the challenges of the EU membership reform process to Turkey's security governmentality. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments iv ....................................................................................... List of Abbreviations .................................................................................................. v Introduction I ................................................................................................. PART 1: THE POLITICS OF SECURITY Chapter 1 Critical Security Studies the Concept Govemmentality 20 and of ................................................ Chapter 2 The Visibility Dimensions of 'Security Governmentality ........................................... 46 PART 11: THE CONSTRUCTION OF SECURITY GOVERNMENTALITY IN TURKEY Chapter 3 Rationality 78 .................................................................................................. Chapter 4 Techniques 101 ............................................................................................... Chapter 5 Identitv 137 ................................................................................................... PART III: SECURITY GOVERNMENTALITY AND TURKEY'S RELATIONS WITH THE EU Chapter 6 Change in Rationality Dimensions Security Governmentality 173 the of ............................ Chapter 7 Change in the Techniques Security Govemmentality 200 of ......................................... Chapter 8 Change in Identity Dimensions Security Govemmentality 223 the of ............................... Conclusion 249 ............................................................................................... Appendix I: National Security Council Recommendations,28 February 1997 272 ..................................... Appendix II: Questionnaire Distributed to the Members of the Justice and Development Party.............. 274 Bibliography 275 ............................................................................................. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Numerous debts have been incurred in writing this PhD thesis and I am pleased to acknowledge them here. First and foremost I must thank my primary supervisor Ken Booth for providing much-needed guidance, patience and support even amidst his many administrative duties. I would also like to thank my second supervisor Mike Williams for his valuable support and comments on this thesis. Thanks also go to the members of our Department of International Politics for their comments, advice and support especially to Andrew Linklater, Martin Alexander, Jenny Edkins, Michael Howard and also to Richard Wyn Jones for providing welfare. While coming to Aberystwyth and writing this dissertation, I was lucky to have the support of Omer Kardas, Hasan Kardas, Samir Agnau, StephanieJ. Ward, John Wrigton, Nur Bilge Criss and Mustafa Kibaroglu. I wish to thank all my interviewees for taking the time to respond to my questions. I am grateful to my colleagues Wolfango Piccoli, Silviya P. Lehner and Sevgi Drorian for reading drafts of the thesis and providing valuable comments. Mustafa Kucuk deserves special mention for sharing his knowledge, laughter and continued support throughout my much-enjoyed stay in Britain. Last but surely not least, I want to give heartfelt thanks to my parents for their unconditional support and patience. Although far away from home, their love was felt dearly. iv ABBREVIATIONS AKP Justice and Development Party C]HP Republican People's Party CSS Critical Security Studies DSP Democratic Left Party DYP True Path Party EEC European Economic Community EU European Union FP Fazilet Party MHP Nationalist Action Party MSP National Salvation Party MUSIAD Association of Independent Businessmen NSC National Security Council NSPD National Security Policy Document ROS Reason of State RP Refah Party TSS Traditional Security Studies TUSIAD Turkish Industrialists and Businessmen's Association WWG Western Working Group YAS Supreme Military Council YOK Higher Education Council V INTRODUCTION The thesis asks a central question: what is the nature of the relationship between state security and domestic politics in contemporary Turkey? It arises from the author's observation that in the last decade the Turkish state has employed a specific set of security discourses and practices that have, in considerable measure, shaped and molded political and personal conduct. The state security discourses and practices have framed the scope of political conduct and informed a range of responses to domestic political dissent. Significantly, these discourses and practices have been accompanied by certain institutional, legal and conceptual instruments utilized by the state elites. As such, Turkey representsa paradigmatic example of the cases where the discourses and practices of state security are interior to and in some part constitutive of domestic political conduct. State security and its attendant regimes, programs and strategies have become extensively enshrined in the constitution and political practice to the extent that at times the concern over 'the security of the state' is imposed on the workings of democratic politics. State security is systematically internalized by the ruling elites through a set of rational and institutional mechanisms. Such a configuration of security produces significant practical ramifications for the government of the people. As a result, power and authority is unevenly distributed in the polity, that is, the discourses and practices of security in Turkey help maintain and reproduce the power of the state elites in domestic politics. Security governmentality comprises two kinds of juxtaposed actors: state elites and political elites (Heper, 1992b: 146-7). State elites can be identified as acting in a 'bureaucratic ruling tradition' and a considerable number of them believe that they both know and protect the national interest better than the citizens (Turan, 1984: 116). The state elites see themselves as the modernizing agents, guardians and 'true servants' of the state; its Kemalist ideology and public-national interest (Yavuz, 2000a). They believe that they are free to act in order to protect 'vital matters', and if necessarydo it at the expense of any other (democratic) political procedure (Heper, 1984: 93). Within the state elites, the thesis identifies the Turkish military as the main agent. Its unprecedented political power has derived from the relevant institutional and legal capacities conferred to it to define and respond to 'domestic threats', especially that of political Islam. The thesis also identifies a second category of elites. These are termed 'political elites', and involve the elected representatives of the political parties, which are normally inclined to protect the socio-economic rights and needs of their constituencies. The distinction can be seen as follows: the state elites can be considered as I representingthe 'vertical' dimension, whereas the political elites represent 'horizontal' dimensionof Turkish politics life (Heper,1991). It is partly this juxtaposition that engendersa conflictual dynamicin democraticpolitics betweenappointed state elites and electedpolitical elites (Karpat, 1988). Another significant ramification of security govemmentality is that state