Browsing by Subject "Turkish Armed Forces"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3

Open Access
Construction of civil-military relations in Turkey
(2011) Halistoprak, Burak Toygar
Maintaining civilian control over military constitutes the classical problematique of the civil-military relations (CMR) scholarship. Besides, the relationship between military and civilians are taken as conflictual. Constructivist approach, on the other hand, argues that roles of social actors are not constant but they are socially constructed through an interaction process. Building on the constructivist approach, this thesis aims to focus on the relationship between military and civilians as an outcome of a process. Its argument is that the nature of relationship between civilians and soldiers are socially constructed within the social interaction process. Thus, it uses constructivism as its theoretical framework to provide insights to the factors determinant on the role of military in the political system. It uses a “theory-building case study” method and intends to make some theoretical implications derived from Turkish case. It analyzes the role construction of military in two domains: Organizational domain; societal domain. While organizational domain focuses on the legal status and self-perception of Turkish Armed Forces, societal domain is composed of political sphere and citizenry. The study shows that instruments such as ideology, compulsory military service system, education and media are used to build a strong military role. It makes a comparison of two periods. First period is between 1980 and 2001. The thesis argues that a strong and active military role can be observed in the first period. The second period is post- 2001 period. In the second era, it is observed that there is a structural and discursive change in the military‟s role in Turkish political system with the effect of the relations with European Union. The thesis makes a modest contribution to the civil- iv military relations literature by using a theoretical framework which has not been used very often in the literature.
Open Access
Non-material sources of Turkish Armed Forces' political power : a "military in society" approach
(2007) Biltekin, Gonca
This thesis is an attempt to understand the non-material sources of Turkish Armed Forces’ political power. For that purpose, the thesis looks at theories of power and relevant civil-military relations literature and illustrates that the current civil-military relations literature employs an institution-based formal decisionmaking approach to military’s political power, where non-material sources of armed forces political power is mostly overlooked. Moreover, current literature presumes the existence of a conflictual relationship between the military and the society where interests of the society and the military clash. Therefore, there is a theoretical gap which makes it problematic to study armies like Turkish Armed Forces, which enjoy a long-term and considerable support from their societies. In order to provide for an answer to such a gap, the thesis develops a “military in society” approach and establishes that the political power of the Turkish Armed Forces emanates from its distinctive relationship with its society which has historical, cultural, social and discursive dimensions.
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PKK ile mücadele kapsaminda Türkiye’de yer alan ilk sivil şehitlik: Derecik Şehitliği
(Bilkent University, 2023) Baykal, Özge; Özdilek, Eda; Kangal, Tugay Eren; Kılıç, Hüseyin Kaan; Okyay, Arda
28 Kasım 1978 tarihinde PKK’nın kurulmasından bu yana, özellikle 1980’lerden başlayarak Türkiye’nin başta Güneydoğu Bölgesi olmak üzere pek çok bölgesinde terör eylemleri gerçekleşmiştir. Bu eylemlerden bazıları köy ve karakol baskınları olarak kendini göstermiştir. Bu araştırma kapsamında bu köy ve karakol baskınlarına sıkça maruz kalmış olan Hakkari ilinin Derecik beldesinde gerçekleştirilen Derecik Baskını sonucu hayatını kaybedenlerin anısına inşa edilen Derecik Şehitliği incelenmiştir. Derecik Şehitliği, Derecik Baskınında hayatını kaybeden sivillerin anısına 34. Hudut Tugayı tarafından bölge halkının da desteğiyle yaptırılmış olan Türkiye’nin ilk sivil şehitliğidir. Derecik Şehitliği, bölge halkının olayda hayatını kaybeden yakınlarını anabilmesi açısından önemlidir.