Master Thesis Defense: Megan Gisclon
A GRADUAL DECLENSION: CIVIL-MILITARY RELATIONS AND THE AKP
Megan Gisclon
Turkish Studies, MA Thesis, 2015
Thesis Jury
Ersin Kalaycıoğlu (Thesis Supervisor), Ahmet Evin, Ali Çarkoğlu, Reşat Bayer(Substitute Jury)
Date &Time: August,5th 2015 – 15:00
Place: FASS 2034
Abstract
This thesis will look at the declension of the military from 2002-2007 as a product not
only of the AKP’s rise to power but also as a product of decades of volatile social and political
change. Primary to the investigation of this question is Turkey’s history of civil-military
relations. Therefore, in the first chapter a brief history of the military’s century-old political and
state power is explained. This is then followed by an outline of the social and cultural changes
of the 1980s and ‘90s. Of equal importance, the AKP’s rise as a political and cultural force to
compete with the military’s resurrected rhetoric of Kemalism and democracy will be detailed as
the discussion of the military’s role is opened up through the European Union accession process.
This will be discussed in chapter two. The third chapter will then analyze the military and
AKP’s use of secularist rhetoric as a tool to maintain and defend their own political power within
the state. After traditional Kemalist secularism had taken a turn out of fashion in the 1980s, the
new secular rhetoric employed under the watch of Chiefs of General Staff Özkök and Büyükanıt
are products of the previous 25 years of politics. Finally, the fourth chapter will deduce the
debate between the military, the civilians, and the government over the rightful, democratic place
of the military within the Turkish state.