The Final Curtain for the Turkish Armed Forces? Civil–Military Relations in View of the 2011 General Elections

Populism and competitive authoritarianism in Turkey

“…Moreover, I share Esen and Gümüşçü' conclusions (2016), according to which competitive authoritarianism is better equipped to describe the features of Erdoğan's regime respect to any other type of political system. The Authors claim that Turkey transitioned from tutelary democracy to CA since 2010: the end of tutelary democracy in the same period is confirmed by several Turkish scholars (Gürsoy 2012;Kuru 2012;Taş 2015;Yildiz 2014). Then, through a brilliant analysis of the key competitive authoritarian dimensions (elections, civil liberties, and the playing field), they find an almost perfect match between CA and Erdoğan's Turkey.…”

“…The effectiveness of this strategy was enhanced by an important facilitating condition, the partial moderation of the military elite, which was influenced by the following factors: the lack of western support (Akkoyunlu and Öktem 2016); the risk of intervening directly in politics during a dire economic crisis and failing to solve it; the recent moderate support of the military for the EU integration process and the reforms it required, including the weakening of its tutelary powers (Gürsoy 2012).…”

Sekülarizm ve Ordu Etkisinin AKP Döneminde Türkiye-AB İlişkilerine Etkisine Yönelik Tarihsel Bir Değerlendirme

“…Moreover, the Ergenekon-Balyoz accusations were not only limited to the military but turned into a big operation involving media members, academics, politicians and writers. The most interesting point was that almost all of the people charged were known for their opposition to the AKP government (Gürsoy, 2012).…”