TESEV DEMOCRATIZATION Program POLICY REPORT SERIES SECURITY SECTOR 4 Military, Police and Intelligence in Turkey: Recent Transformations and Needs for Reform Biriz Berksoy Bankalar Caddesi Minerva Han, No:2, Kat: 3 34420 Karaköy ‹stanbul T +90 212 292 89 03 F +90 212 292 90 46 DEMOKRATİKLEŞME www.tesev.org.tr ISBN 978-605-5332-42-6 PROGRAMI Military, Police and Intelligence in Turkey: Recent Transformations and Needs for Reform Biriz Berksoy Military, Police and Intelligence in Turkey: Recent Transformations and Needs for Reform Türkiye Ekonomik ve Bankalar Cad. Minerva Han Sosyal Etüdler Vakf› No: 2 Kat: 3 Turkish Economic and Karaköy 34420, İstanbul Social Studies Foundation Tel: +90 212 292 89 03 PBX Fax: +90 212 292 90 46 Demokratikleşme Program› [email protected] Democratization Program www.tesev.org.tr Authored by: Publication Identity Design: Rauf Kösemen Biriz Berksoy Cover Design: Banu Yılmaz Ocak Page Layout: Gülderen Rençber Erbaş Translated from Turkish original by: Coordination: Sibel Doğan Parrot Eğitim Bilişim ve Danışmanlik Production Coordination: Nergis Korkmaz Edited by: Emily Brown Cooledge Toker Prepared for Publication by: Zeynep Başer, Neriman Çavdar TESEV PUBLICATIONS ISBN 978-605-5332-42-6 Copyright © June 2013 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced electronically or mechanically (photocopy, storage of records or information, etc.) without the permission of the Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV). All views and opinions appearing in this publication belong to the author and may be partially or completely against the institutional views of TESEV. TESEV would like to extend its thanks to the Chrest Foundation, the Open Society Foundation, Kingdom of the Netherlands Istanbul Consulate Matra Program, Swedish International Develop- ment Cooperation Agency and the TESEV High Advisory Board for their contributions with regard to the publication and promotion of this report. TESEV Democratization Program would like to extend its thanks to Lou Anne Jensen for her feedback during the preparation of the English version of this report. Table of Contents TESEV PREFACE, 5 INTRODUCTION, 7 THE MILITARY AND RELATED INSTITUTIONS, 11 The Position of the Army Among State Institutions and the Ongoing Problem of Military Autonomy, 11 Chief of General Staff, 11 The Supreme Military Council, 12 The Military Judiciary, 13 Civilian Democratic Oversight of the Military and Related Obstacles, 17 Parliamentary Oversight of the Military, 17 Oversight of the Military by Extra-parliamentary Institutions, 18 The General Command of the Gendarmerie, the Coast Guard Command and Problems They Contain as Policing Agencies, 22 The Village Guard System and Related Problems, 25 Compulsory Military Service, Violations of Rights and Militarization, 26 THE POLICE ORGANIZATION, 30 Legal Regulations that Extend the Discretionary Power of the Police, 30 The Authority of the Police to Use Firearms, 31 Gatherings and Demonstrations Act and the Regulation of Rapid Action Units, 32 Police Intervention in Everyday Life, 33 Police Sub-Culture, New Strategies of Policing, and Police-Society Relations, 38 Police Violence, the Policy of Impunity and Inadequate Oversight, 42 THE NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY AND OTHER INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES, 47 IN LIEU OF A CONCLUSION: THE NEED FOR DEMOCRATIZATION IN THE AREA OF “SECURITY” IN CONSIDERING VIOLATIONS OF RIGHTS, 53 REFERENCES, 59 Abbreviations AKP / AK Party Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi) CGC Coast Guard Command (Sahil Güvenlik Komutanlığı) CHP Republican People’s Party (Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi) CMK Criminal Procedure Code (Ceza Muhakemesi Kanunu) ECtHR European Court of Human Rights EU European Union GCG General Command of the Gendarmerie (Jandarma Genel Komutanlığı) HSYK Supreme Council of Judges and Prosecutors (Hakimler ve Savcılar Yüksek Kurulu) IHD Human Rights Association (İnsan Hakları Derneği) KCK Kurdish Communities Union (Koma Civakên Kurdistan) LGBT Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender METU Middle East Technical University (Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi) MGK National Security Council (Milli Güvenlik Kurulu) MIT National Intelligence Agency (Milli Istihbarat Teşkilatı) OSCE Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe OYAK Military Pension Fund (Ordu Yardımlaşma Kurumu) PKK Kurdistan Worker’s Party (Partiya Karkarên Kurdistan) PVSK Police Powers and Duties Law (Polis Vazife ve Salahiyet Kanunu) RTÜK Higher Board of Radio and Television (Radyo Televizyon Üst Kurulu) TBMM Turkish Grand National Assembly (Türkiye Büyük Millet Meclisi) TCK Turkish Penal Code (Türk Ceza Kanunu) TIB Telecommunications Directorate (Telekomünikasyon İletişim Başkanlığı) TIHV Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (Türkiye İnsan Hakları Vakfı) TMK Anti-Terrorism Law (Ceza Muhakemesi Kanunu) TSKGV Turkish Armed Forces Support Foundation (Türk Silahlı Kuvvetleri Güçlendirme Vakfı) UN United Nations YAŞ Supreme Military Council (Yüksek Askeri Şura) YÖK Higher Education Council (Yüksek Öğretim Kurulu) 4 TESEV Preface Etyen Mahçupyan, TESEV Consultant Turkey is currently undergoing a transformation to end “advanced democracy”. Among these obstacles are the age old military tutelage regime, which had the resistance among the bureaucrat cadres, and the informally come into being during the one-party rule of conservative perceptions and assumptions of the AK the Republican People’s Party (Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi, Party and its constituency that hinder the CHP) and was systematized in the 1950s following the transformation of their mindset. The most critical establishment of the multi-party system. This challenge, however, is that in governing and solving transformation to end the tutelage regime was the entrenched problems of the country, the affected by both external and internal factors. government has to rely on the very bureaucracy that it Externally, the European Union (EU) membership seeks to transform. The result is on one hand, a criteria for Turkey, as well as opportunities brought deviation by the government from this imagery of about by globalization have played an important role. “advanced democracy”; and on the other, relatively Internally, it is the attempts of a political movement independent de facto implementations by the security with an Islamic identity – a movement which has bureaucracy that contradicts the programs of the moved to the center of the political spectrum in recent political power. years, and which seeks to redefine the public sphere Such state of affairs recently became manifest with from which it was once excluded. the Gezi Park Protests that started in late May 2013 as The transformative effects of the ruling Justice and the English version of this report was being prepared Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi - AK for layout. The heavy-handed, unpropotional Party) in play which became manifest especially in the intervention of the police on the protestors, as well as aftermath of the 2010 referendum, include, in part, the the government’s reaction to the protests have been restructuring of the security bureaucracy. This indicative of the prevalence of a security restructuring perspective problematizes not only the understanding that downplayed the “advanced organizational structure of the military, police, democracy” perspective. judiciary and intelligence agencies and their What the Gezi Park demonstrations clearly show is that, relationship with civilian politics, but also the in today’s Turkey, social movements have transformed mentality of these institutions. In AK Party’s 2011 to the extent that they no longer can be understood election declaration and government program this through traditional, ideological streotypes they once goal of restructuring was defined as part of held. These new movements demand full use of their perspectives for the “advanced democracy” – which rights to assembly and free speech. In such times, differed from the inherited “contemporary attempts at crushing the demands of these new groups democracy” by its emphasis on the “liberalization of” through old-school practices of the state that were the political rationality. developed to combat old-school ideological threats are In reality however, there seems to be a number of bound to fail. Such practices will result in nothing but a obstacles that prevent the establishment of this blocking of the system, coupled with new crises. 5 All in all, it is clear that the responsibility to take the which are Almanak Türkiye 2005 and Almanak Türkiye necessary steps towards the constitution of a state 2008. Subsequent to a variety of researches with system based on democratic rule of law, with a limited scopes, now we present to the public Biriz legitimate legal basis, falls on the government. In Berksoy’s thorough study in this field. undertaking this task, the AK Party government and In this study Berksoy examines the military, the police the civilian authorities need to examine and learn organization and the intelligence agencies holistically from all past experiences; should act to limit the in order to “identify existing problems in terms of autonomy of the security bureaucracy; and should demilitarization, accountability mechanisms, and take full responsibility of and maintain control in civilian democratic oversight” within these shaping both the security practices and the norms institutions, and seeks to “present the legal and from which those practices are informed. institutional changes necessary both for the solution In this context,