Is the military the Achilles’ heel of the Turkish government?

The Turkish Supreme Court began the appeals process for the notorious Ergenekon case Oct. 6. Ilker Basbug, Turkey’s former chief of staff, appeared before the court with a three-hour defense. In August 2013, Basbug was convicted for plotting a military coup against the government and for establishing and leading a clandestine organization called Ergenekon. Basbug was sentenced to life in prison along with dozens of other high-ranking and junior soldiers, journalists and academics.

The Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) was labeled as the center of the Ergenekon deep-state organization. Ergenekon was one of 11 notorious court cases where hundreds of TSK members were the main suspects, charged with treason, military espionage, conspiracy to overthrow the government and terrorism. Since late 2013, these court decisions have been reversed and hundreds of convicted officers, journalists and academics were released.

On Oct. 7, Basbug’s appeal drew the headline “General submitting a defense, but goes on offense.” Since the court cases started, a growing body of evidence has been produced by the formerly accused personnel’s firsthand accounts of their experiences and perceptions of why the TSK was targeted. Basbug’s lengthy speech reiterated how the plot against the TSK was hatched. Basbug said, “The armed forces were an obstacle for those who have been uneasy over the nation-state, a unitary and secular state, who want to implement moderate Islam ... and who want a political solution to the PKK [Kurdistan Workers Party].”

Basbug repeated a perception shared with many others in the TSK that the Bush administration had blamed the TSK when the Turkish parliament, on March 1, 2003, refused to allow US-led coalition forces to go through Turkey into Iraq; the vote took place just weeks before the invasion of Saddam Hussein's Iraq began. Basburg said he thought the Bush administration and neo-cons supported efforts to weaken the TSK.