Impact of internal threats on civil-military relations in Turkey

Recently, as part of Turkey?s accession process to the European Union, in an attempt to fulfill the political conditions of the Copenhagen criteria, a series of constitutional reforms were implemented in order to decrease Turkish military?s role in politics. In spite of these dramatic changes that diminished role of Turkish military in politics on paper, in practice Turkish Armed Forces are still retaining their influential role in Turkish political life. This thesis represents an attempt to search for the reasons why the Turkish military?s influence over politics did not diminish by looking at the internal threats, the rise of political Islam and Kurdish nationalism. While the rise of political Islam threatens the secularity principle of the Republic, rise of Kurdish nationalism puts the territorial integrity of the country in danger. Secularity and the territorial integrity are the two cherished values of the Turkish Armed Forces. Therefore, this thesis argues that as long as the internal threats continue to challenge the country, Turkish military will continue to play a dominant role in politics. Therefore, EU constitutional reform packages which aimed to decrease the role of Turkish military in politics will not be fully effective.Key Words: 1) Civil-Military Relations, 2) Internal Threats, 3) EU Progress Reports, 4) Harmonization Packages