On Aug. 15, Hizb-ut Tahrir (Party of Liberation, a Sunni organization with Pan-Islamist goals) held an "international media conference" in Beirut. The conference was titled “Gaza … Rather All of Palestine Seeks Victory from Muslim Armies.” At the conference, Mahmut Kar, a Turkish representative of Hizb-ut Tahrir, gave a formidable speech, asking, “Where is the glorious Turkish army? Is it not the best army of the Middle East and eighth-best in the world? We as Hizb-ut Tahrir call upon the Turkish Armed Forces (TAF). For a long time, you have disregarded your religious calling (jihad). You are silent about Gaza. We warn you: Come to the righteous path of jihad in the name of Allah and specifically defend Gaza, and in general liberate the Muslim world from its miseries.”

A young cadet of the Turkish navy watching the video with a gentle smile on his face told Al-Monitor: “Is it not lovely that even marginal Islamist movements in Turkey trust the military?” Kar’s speech did not find any space in mainstream media. A few ultraright marginal Islamist publications reported the conference. Only a decade ago, a call to jihad to TAF by an Islamist organization would have been scrutinized by the media and public, but today it is not even newsworthy. TAF has been out of public sight. 

This absence is particularly intriguing, given the turmoil on Turkey's borders. Failed states Iraq and Syria have given rise to multiple armed nonstate entities, particularly with Kurdish and Islamist identities and with different codes of conduct. Turkey has 49 hostages in the hands of the Islamic State (IS) and an unknown number of fighters have traveled through Turkey into Syria and back. Turkey has started to take some steps to alter its notorious "open border policy" as international and local pressures built up. Yet, rarely if ever will you see an active-duty officer making a statement in the news, or a retired officer providing commentary on security on TV shows. This is a stark change since TAF used to provide harsh comments even in matters of less importance, but now they are almost invisible. Most high-ranking officers were resentful of Chief of General Staff Gen. Necdet Ozel for hurting the prestige of the forces. One cadet asked Al-Monitor, “Do militaries need meek or strong superiors in the ranks?”

A more worrisome question that is almost never asked in Ankara circles is, “How much weight does the government give to the advice of soldiers in designing its policies?” — particularly for the southeastern border, where nation-states and their standing armies are withering away while nonstate armed actors take the stage. This is difficult to assess, since Justice and Development Party (AKP) elites rarely make reference to strong communications during their public speeches.